ANTIQUE BRONZE SCULPTURE.
AN EQUESTRIAN BRONZE FIGURE OF QUEEN VICTORIA
BY BARON CARLO MAROCHETTI (1805-1867)This is the original model and design made for the Monument in George Square, City of Glasgow, Scotland – Circa 1854.
A fine mid-19th Century bronze equestrian sculpture depicting the young Queen Victoria, wearing a flowing cloak over a low cut gown, necklaces, chain of office and a diadem crown, and holding aloft a banner with her right hand.
This is the original design and model for the Monument in George Square, in the City of Glasgow in Scotland, which was commissioned to commemorate the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to that city in 1849. It differs slightly from the final full-size version which has a full crown and sceptre instead of the diadem and penant, and in some other detail, but is otherwise similar, and the model for the second version is in the National Gallery of Scotland.
Marochetti, described by Ruskin as a “thoroughly great sculptor”, was born in Turin in Italy and studied art in Rome and in Paris, and with Bosio (pupil of Pajou, teacher of Canova), and later lived and worked in France, exhibiting at the Paris Salon from 1827 and being awarded the Legion of Honour in 1839. He made a number of important equestrian statues, including that of the Duc d’Orleans, for the courtyard of the Louvre (now at Versailles), the famous figure of Richard the Lionheart in the courtyard of the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament), London, and this equestrian figure of Queen Victoria in Glasgow.
Patronised by Carlo Alberti and Louis Philippe, as well as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert from 1848, Marochetti was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London and was brought in to assist the painter, Sir Edwin Landseer in sculpting the Lions in London’s Trafalgar Square.
This Figure is believed to have been cast by the Sculptor himself in his own foundry in Sydney Mews, London.
Mounted on a black wooden base.
Height: 25” (64 cm). Width: 22” (56 cm). Depth: 7” (18 cm).