Victoria

Statue of Queen Victoria in Tynemouth, Tyne & Wear.

Queen Victoria by Alfred Turner RA (1874-1940). 1902. Bronze seated statue on a hefty but elegantly turned Portland stone base with a wide square surround, of two steps, inscribed to the “Late Beloved Queen / Victoria….” The enthroned monarch is shown in plush robes, with lace trimmings and brooch giving a feminine touch, but she looks decidedly pensive: “A noteworthy study of character” (Grundy et al. 594). Earlier descriptions show that she used to wear a crown and grasp a sceptre in her right hand, and that there used to be small statues on the finials of the throne. A mother and child group on one side is still noted in recent descriptions, but has disappeared now.

The statue is a second cast from one made for New Delhi, and does seem broadly similar in style to Alfred Gilbert’s Victoria in Newcastle (minus the elaborate canopy, of course). But the throne is not at all like the high-backed throne of Frampton’s Victoria in Kolkata (for both suggestions, see Underwood et al. 206). What really distinguishes the statue, however, is the face:

The Queen’s expression is memorable. She seems to be looking back over her reign with a measure of fatalistic acceptance. It was not for nothing that Turner, when still studying at the South London Technical School of Art, carried off the gold medal and travelling studentship awarded by the City and Guilds Institute in 1898 (see “The Speaker…”). The statue was paid for by public subscription.