Charles Summers - Legacy

Legacy

Summers was a regular exhibitor at Royal Academy exhibitions; more than 40 of his works were shown between 1849 and 1876. He was a competent sculptor in a dull and uninspiring period of English art, and comparatively little of his work has lasting qualities. His 'Burke and Wills group' at Melbourne is a sound and dignified piece of work, his frieze of putti on the old Bank of New South Wales building, now in the University of Melbourne grounds, is charming, and the recumbent figure of Lady Macleay at Godstone, Surrey, is also meritorious. Personally Summers was modest, and his willingness to see ability in the work of other artists was a good influence in the early time of art in Victoria. Several examples of his work together with his portrait of Margaret Thomas are in the historical collection at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Summers is also represented in the Adelaide gallery and at the Mitchell library, Sydney. Summers married when a young man; his son, Charles Francis Summers, who survived him, was also a sculptor.