Personal papers and artwork of Alan Durst

The collection includes correspondence, lecture notes, receipts and account books, sketches, approval drawings and photographs.

Alan Durst (1883-1970) was born in Alverstoke, Hampshire, and educated at Marlborough College. He then served in the Royal Marines until 1913, when he began to learn to carve ivory at the London County Council Central School. His interest in carving led him to Chartres where he became enamoured of stone. But the First World War intervened, and for five years he served at sea, and on demobilization became curator of the Watts Museum at Compton, Surrey. In 1920, he returned to London and the Central School, carving in stone and wood, particularly for architectural and decorative purposes. He exhibited widely: in 1928 for instance, his work was shown at the Venice Biennale, the Duveen Exhibition at Buenos Aires, the London Group Retrospective, the Imperial Institute, and the Garden Sculpture Show at the Horticultural Hall. Durst believed that the disregard of material by the sculptor was due to the overwhelming application of modelling, supervening on the lost art of Gothic carving.

The material has been arranged into the following series and sub-series:

TGA 729/1/1-512 Correspondence;

TGA 729/1/513-783 Sales and Accounts;

TGA 729/2/1-3 Photograph Albums;

TGA 729/3/1-179 Sketches and Drawings.

OPEN

Microfiche available.

Presented by David Durst, 1972

Additional Durst material from the family was presented in 1997 under TGA 973.

Loose photographs have been transferred to the Photograph Collection under the artist's name.