Pietro Porcelli

Pietro Giacomo Porcelli (30 January 1872 – 28 June 1943) was an Italian-born sculptor responsible for many statues in Western Australia, including the Explorers' Monument, and those of C. Y. O'Connor and Alexander Forrest.

[1] Born in Bisceglie in the province of Bari, he moved to Sydney with his fisherman father at the age of 8.

After initial training at the New South Wales Academy of Art, he furthered his study of sculpture and drawing in Naples, before returning to Fremantle with his father in 1898.

Later that year, he completed his first commission – a bust of Sir John Forrest that now stands in the main entrance hall of Parliament House in Perth.

Porcelli also completed war memorials in Kalgoorlie, Boulder, Victoria Park, West Leederville and Moora, and numerous headstones in Karrakatta and Fremantle Cemeteries, including that of Sir John Forrest in 1918.

Pietro Porcelli
Porcelli working on a statue of C. Y. O'Connor , 1910 or 1911.
A bronze statue of Porcelli by Perth artist Greg James was unveiled in Kings Square, Fremantle , in 1993.