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
A bronze and stone memorial to Arthur Sullivan. A bronze bust of Sullivan stands on a granite pedestal. A figure of a crying muse leans against the plinth. On the base, bronze sculptures of sheet music, the masks of comedy and tragedy and a mandolin.
"The most erotic statue in London"[1]
Map
ArtistWilliam Goscombe John
Completion date1903
TypeSculpture
Mediumbronze and granite
SubjectArthur Sullivan
LocationLondon
Coordinates51°30′33″N 0°07′13″W / 51.5093°N 0.1203°W / 51.5093; -0.1203
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameSir Arthur Sullivan Memorial
Designated24 February 1958
Reference no.1238072

History

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Sir 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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George Power, Leonora Braham, Jessie Bond and Julia Gwynne at the memorial in 1914

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

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  1. ^ John presented a copy of the bronze to the Royal Academy of Music.[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b Blundell & Hudson 1998, p. 56.
  2. ^ "Funeral of Sir Arthur Sullivan", The Times, 28 November 1900, p. 12
  3. ^ "Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan". www.npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e Darke 1991, p. 49.
  5. ^ a b Bradley & Pevsner 2003, p. 379.
  6. ^ "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.
  7. ^ a b c Historic England. "Sir Arthur Sullivan Memorial (Grade II) (1238072)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  8. ^ "Sir Arthur Sullivan". London Remembers. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  9. ^ "London's Raciest Statues". Londonist. 29 December 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  10. ^ Parris, Matthew. "I've found a little Eden in London", The Spectator, 5 March 2022
  11. ^ "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

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