Bronze Reduction of a Young Queen Victoria on Horseback after Thomas Thornycroft for the Art Union of London 1854

One of Fewer Than Fifty Bronze Reductions of a Young Queen Victoria on Horseback after Thomas Thornycroft for the Art Union of London 1854

A bronze equestrian portrait representing a young Queen Victoria riding side saddle upon her Arabian charger and signed T. Thornycroft fec. 1853 and Art Union of London, 1854 respectively.

Thomas Thornycroft’s plaster equestrian statue of Queen Victoria was exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 to great acclaim. It was later exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1854. As a result of its enduring popularity, the Art Union of London commissioned a slightly reworked version of the statue, the legs of the horse being somewhat repositioned, from the sculptor in 1853 in the form of fewer than 50 reductions in bronze intended to be given out as prizes in the art union ballots between 1854 and 1860 continuously, with one additional statuette offered as a prize in 1866. Our piece is one of these prizes.

The full size statue was derived from an engraving of Queen Victoria reviewing the troops at Chobham which appeared in the Illustrated London News of 2nd July 1853. It was produced with the approval of Queen Victoria, who arranged for her horse to be sent to the sculptor’s studio several times during the process. Thornycroft also produced a pendant piece of Prince Albert erected at St George’s Plateau in Liverpool (where it remains today).

An article in the Liverpool Courier, reproduced in the Liverpool Albion, 15ht of May 1854, describes the clamour to acquire these pieces:

‘ART UNION OF LONDON,- Amongst the numerous prizes awarded by the society to its subscribers, at the recent annual meeting, not any has proved more acceptable than Thornycroft’s bronze statuette of the Queen on horseback….Her Majesty is represented as she appeared at Chobham, a most faithful likeness. There is a dignity and elegance in the figure of the Queen, who sits her charger with that grace for which she is so famous, while the latter is most spirited, and expressed with more power than any other production of a similar character’.

Another of the bronze reductions of this subject is in the V&A and the online catalogue entry, sadly lacking a photograph, can be seen here

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O313450/queen-victoria-on-horseback-statuette-thornycroft-thomas/

and another is in the Royal Collection at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/queen-victoria-18191901-on-horseback-275968

Research we have conducted in the newspaper archives shows the following statistics. In 1854, the Art Union offered 5 statuettes of the present model. In 1855, a further 5 were offered. In 1856 11 statuettes were made available, in 1857 12 were made available and in 1858 there were a further 5. The figure for 1859 was seemingly not recorded. In 1860 5 more of the statuettes were offered but they then disappear from the list of prizes offered until 1866 when a single example was offered once more. This means that at least 43 of these statuettes were made but most likely fewer than 50 making them, as intended at the time, extremely collectable works of art.

Another of these statuettes was exhibited at a loan exhibition of sculpture and medals entitled The Victorian Society British Sculpture 1850-1914, 1968, no.163.