Prince Albert
Thomas Thornycroft (1814-1885)
Dated 1866
Bronze on a granite pedestal
St George's Plateau, Liverpool
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Photograph by Robert Freidus
Caption and commentary below by Jacqueline Banerjee.
Commentary
Thomas Thornycroft's statue of Prince Albert for this prominent position in front of St George's Hall, Liverpool, proved rather controversial. The Queen did not attend the unveiling, perhaps because the sculptor had portrayed the Prince Consort as a "philosophical prince" rather than as a military man. There were also suggestions of "inaccuracies both in the horse's anatomy and in the Prince's riding posture" (Cavanagh 94). A slightly earlier statue of the Prince by Thornycroft was better received. This is the one in Queen's Square, Wolverhampton, which shows him in military uniform (1866). The Queen did attend the Wolverhampton unveiling, though her comment on the finished work was not particularly enthusiastic (see Noszlopy and Waterhouse 203). However, the two equestrian statues of Victoria and Albert in Liverpool still make a very fine pair.
References
Cavanagh, Terry. Public Sculpture of Liverpool. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996.
Noszlopy, George T, and Fiona Waterhouse. Public Sculpture of Staffordshire and the Black Country. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005.
Last modified 19 May 2011