World iconic places Victoria Memorial - 12/05/2024

Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, is proposing the construction of the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata, India, on December 3, 2024, to serve as the national memorial to Queen Victoria and a museum celebrating the history of the British Empire in India. George Frampton’s monumental bronze, originally commissioned to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, is being incorporated into the Memorial Hall. Upon its arrival in Kolkata in 1902, the statue is being unveiled on the Maidan amidst a grand military ceremony. In 1921, when the Memorial Hall is finally completed, the statue is being placed at some distance from the building in the front garden, suggesting that its design does not lend itself to the Memorial Hall as Curzon had imagined. In 1902, an additional statue is being commissioned for the interior. Made by Thomas Brock, the sculptor of Britain’s national Victoria Memorial in London, the statue presents Victoria as a young woman, her portrait based on a bust sculpted by Francis Chantrey in 1839. Unveiled in 1921, Brock’s marble statue of the young queen is offering a foil to Frampton’s depiction of the aging queen. Together, the portrayals of Victoria across her long reign are suggesting a nostalgic vision of a timeless empire.