Progress by Sir Thomas Brock, K.C.B., R.A. 1847-1922. 1911. Bronze. 11 feet 6 inches high. The Victoria Memorial, between the Mall and Buckingham Palace, London. “There are two ideal figures, semi-draped, supported by lions British, of course: Peace, a splendidly proportioned female, carrying an olive-branch and pressing forward with a radiant look upon her face: and Progress, a nobly formed youth, laurel-crowned, and bearing a torch in his left hand as he advances with buoyant step.” [Click on these images to enlarge them.]
On 1 May 2019 Alfred Alan Taylor wrote, “The person who posed for ‘progress’ was my late uncle, Robert James Bird [1903-1998]. Robert’s father was William Robert Bird (b.1870, in Woodford Bridge, Essex), who was a friend of Sir Thomas Brock, the sculptor who designed and executed the Victoria Memorial. Robert married my aunt Marguerite Olga Taylor.” — George P. Landow
Compare the plaster sketch model published in the 1911 Studio.
Left Photograph by George P. Landow December 1999; others by Robert Freidus. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.
Bibliography
Beattie, Susan. The New Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
Read, Benedict. Victorian Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
Salaman, Malcolm C. “Sir Thomas Brock's Queen Victoria Memorial.” The Studio 53 (June 1911) 29-40. Internet Archive digitized from a copy in the University of Toronto Library.
Last modified 1 May 2019