The Duke of Wellington by Baron Marochetti. 1854. Bronze. Bronze on a granite pedestal, Woodhouse Moor, Leeds. [Click on these images for larger pictures.]
This statue was re-sited here in 1937, from its original location outside the Town Hall (see Leach and Pevsner 471). With its subject's confident stance, it vividly illustrates Marochetti's panache, sometimes criticised as "trickiness" or flashiness (e.g. see Read 364). The plumed hat is particularly fine: see whole monument. Since it stands on a corner opposite one of the entrances to the University of Leeds, it is treated just as irreverently as the same sculptor's equestrian statue of the Duke in Glasgow. Instead of having a traffic cone perched on its head, though, it has its boots painted red. More generally speaking, it is not well sited here: its height means that it is almost lost among the foliage. Vegetation encroaches on the base as well.
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Photographs, caption, and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee, 2011 [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 UR, or cite the Victorian Web in a print document.]
Bibliography
Leach, Peter, and Nikolaus Pevsner. Yorkshire West Riding, Leeds, Bradford and the North. The Buildings of England series. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2009.
Read, Benedict. Victorian Sculpture. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2009.
Last modified 16 July 2011