The Naked Soldier

Twenty-one thousand New South Wales men and women dead. Thousands more maimed or permanently incapacitated.

This was the reality that sculptor Rayner Hoff endeavoured to commemorate after he was commissioned in 1930 to create the sculptures for Sydney's Anzac Memorial.

While honouring the dead, his heart is clearly also with those who were left behind - the mothers, wives, lovers, and children, who mourned their fallen loved ones or cared for those who returned injured. These women were the emotional heart of Hoff's enigmatic statue Sacrifice because they had to face their loss every day. Unfortunately, for reasons lost in history, Hoff's messages of empathic condolence remained silent ever since the Memorial opened on 24 November 1934.

In The Naked Soldier, Dr John Stace examines Hoff's art deco masterpieces in more detail than ever before and unravels their meanings through meticulous research.