Queen Victoria (1819-1901), by Matthew Noble (1817-1876). 1869-72; unveiled 29 April 1872 (see Steggles and Barnes 202). Sicilian marble. The statue, in large part the gift of the Maharaja of Gaekwar of Baroda, is eight feet high but originally had a towering neo-Gothic canopy, as seen on the right, taking the structure to 42 feet in all (Chopra 212). The first of many statues of the queen to be erected in India, it marked the transition of power in India after the events of 1857, and was also intended to make a pair with the same sculptor's Prince Albert in the (then) Victoria and Albert Museum, Bombay (now the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai). It was never placed inside the museum, though, only arriving in its grounds after some acts of vandalism made it seem advisable to move it there. The canopy is still in existence, having been privately purchased. It now serves as a kind of garden folly (see both Steggles and Barnes 203, and "Queen Victoria Statue, Bombay"). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Photograph on the left by Ramachandran Venkatesh; historic photograph on the right, by kind permission of the British Library Online Gallery. Text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer or source, and (2) link your document to this URl, or cite the Victorian Web in a print document.
Related Material
- Noble's bust of Queen Victoria inside the museum
- Engraving in the Illustrated London News (8 June 1872): 561.
Bibliography
"Queen Victoria Statue, Bombay." British Library Gallery Online. Web. 10 June 2016.
Steggles, Mary Ann, and Richard Barnes. British Sculpture in India: New Views and Old Memories. London: Frontier Publishing, 2011.
Created 10 June 2016
Link added 14 May 2019