Plenty (the Princess Louise)

Mary Thornycroft

Source: 1861 Art-Journal

“This is a companion work of the statue of 'Peace, the Princess Helena,' engraved in our last number. Assuming, though such is not always the cose, that plenty follows in the train of peace, the sculptor has given to the young royal lady the symbols or attributes of the time of harvesting aud fruit-gathering, as indicative of abuudance, typifying barns filled with golden grain, and the wine-press with the produce of the orchard and the vineyard. She holds in her hands a cornucopia of ripe fruit; at her feet are some ears of wheat. There is an appropriate distinction in the treatment of the two figures, as we read each respectively. 'Peace' stands in an attitude of rest; the lines of the drapery, as well as the position of the limbs, indicate repose: 'Plenty' is in motion; she is carrying home the gathered fruit, the bared arm shows her to have been at work, and the robe hangs loosely on the person, as if disarranged” by labour, yet there is no carelessness in the disposition of the garment, it is modelled with a due regard to richness of effect, though had the uppermost folds been a little less strongly marked than they are, it would have improved its general appearance. Independently of the interest these works cannot fail to excite as pleasing examples of sculptured Art, they must be welcome as portraits, and faithful ones too, of children of the most popular monarch in Christendom, our own most gracious and deservedly loved Queen. Politics are, happily, excluded from the columns of our journal, and we have no desire to enter their arena, but we may be allowed to say there is no true Englishman or woman who does not desire that our Queen may long be preserved to us and her children. [continued below]

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