Victoria and Albert Museum (South Façade)
Summary
Type Sculpture , Relief
Single standing figures in niches between the windows along the entire façade:
1) Westernmost group representing English sculptors:
G. Gibbons and Bacon the Elder by W.S. Frith; John Flaxman and Francis Chantry by Bertram Regram; John Foley and Alfred Stevens by James Gamble.
2) Easternmost group representing English architects:
William of Wikenham and John Thorpe by John Wenlock Rollins; Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren by Oliver Wheattey; William Chambers and Charles Barry by Gilbert Bayes.
3) Two central groups, at each side of the main entrance, representing English painters:
William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds by Reuben Sheppard; Thomas Gainsborough and George Romney by S. Nicholson Babb; Richard Cosway and J.M.W. Thoner by Earnest George Gillick; John Constable by Vincent Hill; G.F. Watts by Richard Reginald Goulden; Lord Leighton by Sidney Boyes; J.E. Millais by James Alexander Stevenson.
4) Main entrance in centre of south façade: full-length standing figure of Prince Albert by Albert Drury inside tympanum above main doors; above Prince Albert, standing figure of Queen Victoria flanked by Sts. George and Michael (all by Albert Drury). Above Queen Victoria is a royal coat of arms.
On the west and east sides of the arch are the Allegories of Knowledge and Inspiration by Albert Drury. In the spandrel are the allegories of Truth and Beauty by George Frampton.
Relief portrait of Edward VII and Alexandra are probably by W.S. Fryth.
At the top of the tower above the entrance, is a marble figure of Fame by Professor Edward Lanteri and the students of the Royal College of Art. In the niches at the base of the tower are Sculpture and Architecture by Professor Edward Lanteri and the students of the Royal College of Art.
On the façade, at each side of the main entrance, are the figures of Edward VII and Alexandra by William Goscombe John.
Exhibition Rd. façade features similar standing figures in niche, representing English craftsmen:
St. Dunstan and William Torel by F. Lynn Jenkins; William Caxton and George Heriot by Paul Raphael Montford; Huntington Shaw and Thomas Tompkin by Abraham Broadbent; Thomas Chippendale and Thomas Wedgewood by Albert Hodge; Roger Payne and William Morris by Arthur George Walker.
Inscriptions
Portraits of artists between windows bear their names and dates below; Other figures, except Fame and those in spandrels are identified below the carvings.
Contributor details
Element details
PMSA recording information
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