“Prince Albert,” by John Henry Foley (1818-1874)

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Prince Albert

John Henry Foley (1818-1874)

1866 (see Foster 64); first installed and unveiled in the Art Gallery, 1868 (see Read 153)

Marble

Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham

This statue stands in the opposite corner to a later one of Queen Victoria, by Thomas Woolner, on the half-landing of the main stairs of Birmingham's grand municipal building or "Council House." A Gothic canopy was originally planned for it (see Read 153), but it occupies its present position without any kind of architectural fanfare, just as the Queen's statue does.

Photographs, commentary and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee, 2012.

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However, in contrast to his companion piece, Prince Albert is ceremoniously attired, wearing his garter robes, which have been finely designed and sculpted in every detail. In this respect the statue is very similar to the seated Albert of the Albert Memorial, completed” by Thomas Brock after Foley's death. In this Birmingham statue too there is something of the visionary in the Prince's gaze. He was popular in this city, which he had first visited in November 1843 when it was still a Chartist stronghold. His tour of factories there had brought out huge crowds, not to protest, as previously feared, but to cheer him (see Stewart 98). A later visit to a Birmingham trade fair in 1849 is said to have been his inspiration for the Great Exhibition (see Zuckerman and Eley 150), and there were further visits in 1855 and 1858 (see Showell's Dictionary 274).

Related material

Birmingham (homepage)

Bibliography

Foster, Andy. Birmingham. Pevsner Architectural Guides. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005. Print.

Read, Benedict. Victorian Sculpture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1982. Print.

Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham: A History and Guide, compiled” by Thomas Harman. Birmingham: Cornish Brothers, 1885. Internet Archive. Web. 12 August 2012.

Stewart, Jules. Albert: A Life. London and New York: I B Tauris, 2012. Print.

Zuckerman, Joan, and Geoffrey Eley. The Birmingham Heritage. London: Croom Helm, 1979. Print.

Last modified 12 August 2012