by Jeannie White and Shane Sody

Your Adelaide Park Lands are home to a variety of artistic works.

This article is the third in a series, Know Your Park Lands Art, that introduces you to various creative works in your Park Lands.

John Stuart Dowie (1915–2008) was an Australian painter, sculptor and art teacher. His work includes over 50 public sculptures (both in SA and interstate) including several within your Adelaide Park Lands, featured below.

While John Dowie spent some of his career in London and Florence, he mainly worked in Adelaide. During his career, John Dowie taught art at the South Australian School of Art.

In June 1981, he was named a Member of the Order of Australia for his services as a sculptor and painter.

Three Rivers Fountain (1968)

The largest of John Dowie’s works, the Three Rivers Fountain was unveiled in 1968 to commemorate the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Adelaide, five years earlier, in 1963.

The fountain has been listed, since 2012, as a State Heritage place.

In 2014 it was moved from the northern end of Victoria Square to the southern end.

The centrepiece, in the shape of a crown, represents the 1963 royal visit. The fountain represents the three rivers from which the greater Adelaide region draws water:

• the River Murray/Millewa, depicted by an Aboriginal man and an ibis;

• River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari, depicted by a woman and a black swan; and

• the Onkaparinga/Ngangkiparri, depicted by a woman and a heron.

The Three Rivers fountain was the first major civic artwork in Adelaide to recognise Aboriginal culture.

Piccaninny (1960)

This modest bronze drinking fountain was commissioned and installed to coincide with the opening of the landscaped Rymill Park in 1960.

It depicts an Aboriginal girl crouching, with a bowl on her head, which acts as a water container for the drinking fountain.

It’s just outside (on the south-western side of) the Quentin Kenihan Inclusive Playspace.

Alice (1962)

Alice stands on a stone pedestal, surrounded by a flower bed. The inscription on the pedestal acknowledges the donors who funded the sculpture: Josephine and Norman Lewis who put up one thousand pounds to have it created by John Dowie.

The Lewises were inspired by a statue of Peter Pan in London’s Kensington Gardens. They had originally wanted a local version of Peter Pan, and they had wanted it to be on the island, in the centre of the Rymill Park lake.

However, after discussing it with John Dowie, they agreed with his suggestion that it be a statue of Alice instead of Peter Pan.

The inscription reads “For the children” because in the early 1960’s it was hoped that the landscaping of this Park would create a space that would be popular with children.

A circular frieze around the base of the statue depicts figures from Lewis Carroll’s two “Alice” books including the White Rabbit, Tweedledum and Tweedledee and a Cheshire Cat, all tumbling over and crowding each other.

John Dowie created a plaster version of the statue which was sent to Italy to be cast into bronze.

The bronze sculpture was shipped back from Italy and it was unveiled in December 1962 by the then Lord-Mayor, Charles Glover.

Pan (1963)

This bronze fountain depicting the mythical god “Pan” is the centrepiece of the sunken garden in Veale Gardens, in Veale Park /Walyu Yarta (Park 21).

Adelaide City Councillors at a meeting in 1962 talked of wanting this to be “like fountains you see in Vienna”.

During its construction in 1962, Pan fell and was damaged, forcing Dowie to redo parts of the statue before its installation in 1963, timed to coincide with the opening of Veale Gardens.

Busts

In addition to the major artworks above, John Dowie also created a number of head and bust sculptures across Adelaide - depicting influential figures in Adelaide’s history.

Several of these busts are located in Prince Henry Gardens, off North Terrace in your Red Gum Park / Karrawirra (Park 12)

At the time of his death in 2008, John Dowie was described as “a great sculptor, very generous and enormous sense of humour."

Read more about John Stuart Dowie at the SA History Hub: https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au/people/dr-john-stuart-dowie-am

Banner pic (at the top): experienceadelaide.com.au

For more articles in our “Know Your Park Lands Art” series, head here: https://www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/know-your-park-lands-art.