King Edward VII Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal, K.C.V.O., R.A., 1863-1931. Victoria Memorial Garden, Calcutta; the domed building in the background is Sir William Emerson and Vincent Jerome Esch's Victoria Memorial on which Goscombe John's panels appear. This bronze equestrian statue of the King, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1916, is a variation of Mackennal's similar one for Queen's Gate, London, and it was commissioned a personal tribute of HH Sir Aga Sultan Muhammad Shah, the 3rd Aga Khan.
Three views of the equestrian portrait of the king. [Click on images to enlarge them.]
Four allegorical figures representing the power of the British Empire. Left to right: (a) Naval Power. (b) Agriculture [?] (The figure apopears to be holding a hoe.] (c) Civil Government and the Legal System. (d) Military Power on Land. [Note: it is not clear that Mackennal himself carved or even supervised the carving of these four figures, which may have been done in India.]
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Text and photographs: Robert Freidus and Simon Stock. Formatting and image correction by George P. Landow. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographers and (2) link your document to this URL in a web documnt or cite it in a print one.]
Bibliography
Beattie, Susan. The New Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
Edwards, Deborah. Bertarm Mackennal. New South WalesL Art Gallery of NSW, 2007.
Steggles, Mary Ann. Statues of the Raj. Putney, London: BACSA [British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia], 2000.
Last modified 14 August 2011