The Memorial to Arthur Sullivan by William Goscombe John stands in Victoria Embankment Gardens in the centre of London. It was designated a Grade II listed structure in 1958.
| Arthur Sullivan Memorial | |
|---|---|
 "The most erotic statue in London"[1] | |
 | |
| Artist | William Goscombe John |
| Completion date | 1903 |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Medium | bronze and granite |
| Subject | Arthur Sullivan |
| Location | London |
| 51°30′33″N 0°07′13″W / 51.5093°N 0.1203°W | |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Sir Arthur Sullivan Memorial |
| Designated | 24 February 1958 |
| Reference no. | 1238072 |
History
editSir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer best known for his enduring operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert. Prior to his death in 1900, Sullivan had expressed a wish to be buried with other members of his family in Brompton Cemetery in West London. At the command of Queen Victoria, he was instead interred in St. Paul's Cathedral.[2] In 1903, a memorial to him was raised in Victoria Embankment Gardens, close to the site of the Savoy Theatre where many of his and Gilbert's comic operas premiered.[3]
Why, O nymph, O why display
Your beauty in such disarray?
Is it decent, is it just,
To so conventional a bust?
—rhyme inspired by "the most erotic statue in London"[4]
The sculptor was Sir William Goscombe John RA.[5] John modelled the head and shoulders bust in bronze,[a] subsequently adding the figure of a disconsolate woman, which he had sculpted in Paris in 1890–1899.[4] Sources variously describe the figure as representing "Grief"[7] or the Greek muse of music, Euterpe.[4]
The statue has been described as "the most erotic in London" and inspired a rhyme on that theme (see box).[4][8][9] John Whitlock Blundell and Roger Hudson, in their study The Immortals: London's finest statues, note the memorial's "fin de siècle spirit".[1]
Description
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The bust of Sullivan is in bronze and stands on a pedestal of granite.[7] A bronze figure of a woman weeping, her upper body nude and her lower body covered in drapery, leans, as if pressing her body in her grief, against the plinth.[10] Pevsner describes the Art Deco style of the memorial as "in the Père Lachaise manner”.[5] The plinth also carries lines from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1888 opera The Yeomen of the Guard: "Is life a boon? / If so, it must befall / That Death, whene'er he call, / Must call too soon."[4] The lines are repeated in the bronze sculpture at the base, which depicts an open book of music, one of the masks of Comedy and Tragedy, and a mandolin. The pedestal is fronted by a semi-circular stone bearing Sullivan's name and dates of birth and death.[11] The memorial is a Grade II listed structure.[7]
Footnotes
edit- ^ John presented a copy of the bronze to the Royal Academy of Music.[6]
References
edit- ^ a b Blundell & Hudson 1998, p. 56.
- ^ "Funeral of Sir Arthur Sullivan", The Times, 28 November 1900, p. 12
- ^ "Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan". www.npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Darke 1991, p. 49.
- ^ a b Bradley & Pevsner 2003, p. 379.
- ^ "Sculpture: Portrait bust of Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan by Sir William Goscombe John. Bronze, c.1903". www.ram.ac.uk. Royal Academy of Music. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ a b c Historic England. "Sir Arthur Sullivan Memorial (Grade II) (1238072)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- ^ "Sir Arthur Sullivan". London Remembers. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ "London's Raciest Statues". Londonist. 29 December 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ Parris, Matthew. "I've found a little Eden in London", The Spectator, 5 March 2022
- ^ "Great London Sculptures: Memorial to Sir Arthur Sullivan by Sir William Goscombe John in Victoria Embankment Gardens". London Visitors. 13 January 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
Sources
edit- Blundell, Joe Whitlock; Hudson, Roger (1998). The Immortals: London's finest statues. London: The Folio Society. OCLC 50481074.
- Bradley, Simon; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2003). London 6: Westminster. The Buildings of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09595-1. OCLC 493040520.
- Darke, Jo (1991). The Monument Guide to England and Wales: A National Portrait in Bronze and Stone. London: MacDonald and Co. ISBN 978-0-356-17609-3. OCLC 24698831.
External links
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Media related to Arthur Sullivan Memorial at Wikimedia Commons- The Victorian Web – Sir William Goscombe John
- A Walking Tour of Sir Arthur Sullivan's London
