Statues - Hither & Thither

 

Description

Bronze statue of Lord Clyde wearing an informal uniform and resting his telescope on a palm-tree stump. In his left hand his cavalry sword. It stands on a fat pink granite pillar. At the base of the pillar sits an allegorical woman - said tobe the Empress of India, or by others, Victory - lounging on a reclining lion.

Comments were rather negative:

BARON MAROCHETTI'S LORD CLYDE The new group in bronze by Baron Marochetti, which has been placed the garden of the United Service Club, Waterloo-place, is intended to commemorate Lord Clyde. It may serve this purpose so long as we continue ignorant of the art of sculpture, but it will certainly degrade the reputation of the artist, and signalise his low opinion of English taste. We now understand why this group was refused place on the Parade, St. James', at the back of the' Admiralty. The statue, however, is highly to be commended on account of its representing modem costume, and that not unsuccessfully regards expressiveness. The figure is bare-headed, of bronze, and stands in the action of holding one hand to the sling of a field telescope which crosses the breast, and in the other hand bearing the sun-proof helmet of the Indian army. As the attitude is fairly sustained and easily understood, it will be popularly admired. There is enough in the idea, if fairly wrought out, to please somewhat higher order of taste. Yet the whole offends the student in its "cheap, nasty, and thoroughly Brummagem" look. The flesh is onrionsly rude in execution; the expression of the face is commonplace and deficient in energy. The figure was never meant to be looked at from behind, where all is blank and actionless. The draperies - coat, trousers, and boots - are wrought in a series of unmeaning furrows, cuts, and gashes in the metal, and lean folds with blunt contours, which do not oorrespond with the furrows and gashes. This is easy work, of course, but not derived from the free power in play of a master—rather from the pretending dexterity of one who wishes to be rid of his task, with just enough ef pains to satisfy amateurs. Truly and briefly, it is the worst of amateur workmanship in London. The miserable lion sets rest the question of the authorship of the Nelson Lions. (Glasgow Evening Citizen, Saturday 14 September 1867)

This statue of Lord Clyde is absolutely grotesque. lt is the work Baron Marochetti, who is capable of better things. ... Seen through a telescope the statue itself is suffuciently life-like; but the woman on the lion (said to be the Empress of India) is the work itself, and Lord Clyde is only an accessory. (Homeward Mail from India, China and the East, 12 September 1867).

Inscription(s)

Sculptor

• Baron Carlo (Charles) Marochetti (Turin 1805 - Passy 1867) Italian-French sculptor, born in Turin, but raised in Paris as a French citizen (Wikipedia).

Sources & Information

• Andrew Kershman, London's Monuments (London: Metro Publ., 2013), p. 96.
• John Blackwood, London's Immortals: The Complete Outdoor Commemorative Statues (London: Savoy, 1989), p. 260-261.
• London Remembers, Memorials.
• Bob Speel, Sculptures at Waterloo Place.
• The Victorian Web, The Art of Sculpture in Victorian Britain.

Tags

Locatie (N 51°30'24" - W 0°7'54") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

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