Queen Victoria
Baron Carlo Marochetti (1805-1867)
Unveiled 1854 (re-erected, 1866)
Bronze on a red and grey granite pedestal with bronze reliefs
George Square, Glasgow
This monument commemorates the Queen's visit to Glasgow in 1849; episodes from the visit are depicted in the reliefs on the sides of the pedestal. [Continued below]
Photograph and text by Jacqueline Banerjee
It was Britain's first equestrian statue of a woman, and drew enormous crowds for its inauguration, an event widely reported in the papers. It had provoked much discussion about balance (since the Queen had to be shown sitting side-saddle) and proportion (in case her feminine figure should be dwarfed by her steed). The Glasgow Courier thought Marochetti had responded well to such challenges, but the Edinburgh Evening Post was generally critical: "we are no admirers of the work of the Baron Marochetti: they are somewhat clipped and affected in their style and expression," and so on — there seemed to be something "pinched and meagre" in his "elegant" horses (all qtd. in McKenzie 129), said the reviewer, describing them pointedly as more suited to the salon than the outdoors. Benedict Read notes that Glasgow was more cosmopolitan than Edinburgh in its choice of sculptors (see 117). Evidently it was less xenophobic in judging them, too. But some did compare this monument unfavourably with Marochetti's earlier Duke of Wellington in Glasgow, and Marochetti's "display of technical virtuosity" in showing the Queen's horse in forward motion was also criticised (McKenzie 130). Perhaps in response to such criticisms, he seems to have altered the horse a little when the monument was re-sited to make a pair with his Prince Albert: a previously raised hind leg was brought down to the plinth. Cf.Thomas Thornycroft's 1869 equestrian statue of the Queen in front of St George's Hall, Liverpool.
References
McKenzie, Ray. Public Sculpture of Glasgow. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002.
Read, Benedict. Victorian Sculpture. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1982.
Last modified 13 October 2009