The King George V (KGV) Memorial Hospital for Mothers and Babies opened in 1941 as a stand alone maternity hospital for mothers and babies. Several statues and reliefs were commissioned for the building during construction. KGV was the first Maternity Hospital in NSW to be attached to a large general hospital and as such offered a new model of care.

 

In 1941 Sir Herbert Schlink, Chairman of the Board and Director of RPA, commissioned four panels of work by artist Otto Steen – a Danish-born sculptor who migrated to Australia in 1927. 

Located at eye level, the two larger panels, 3m high, present two variations of the 'Mother and Child' theme and higher up on the wings of the 9th floor, are the two 'Bambini' reliefs measuring at 2m in height.

The sculptures are inspired and based on the Della Robbie babies found on the 15th century built Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents) in Florence, Italy.

RPA Gazette, 1940

All four sculptures are in the Della Robbia tradition of the early Renaissance. The colours are warm cream on a Della Robia blue background. These colours originally formed the motif throughout the King George V Maternity Hospital building.

 

Unveiled by H.R.H Duke of Gloucester in 1947, the King George V statue, created from white north Queensland marble, was commissioned and donated by the family of Robert Stirling Henry upon his death.

The statue depicts the uncrowned King in Coronation Robes holding the Royal sceptre in his hands. It was the first time Australian marble had been used for a statue of this size. 

The brittleness of its crystals called for the invention of tungsten chisels by the artist, and one can well imagine the industry and labour required of him to reduce an eight and a half ton block to its present weight of two and a half.

Sir Herbert Schlink, 1947

Carved from Hawkesbury sandstone, the Statue to Maternity (located in the North-East garden) was unveiled in 1944 and the Surgeon (South-East garden) in 1945. 

The mother pressed the baby to her protective body just as the mother tree shelters the little tree from raging gales and the scorching sun.

Andor Meszaros, 1948