Statue

V&A façade - Gainsborough

Erection date: 1909

Inscription

T. Gainsborough

Site: Victoria & Albert Museum façade (38 memorials)

SW7, Cromwell Road

Excluding the allegories (such as Knowledge) there are 36 statues on the two public façades of the V&A Museum, on Exhibition Road and Cromwell Road. This building was designed by Aston Webb and built 1899-1909. Each statue has the subject's name on a label beneath the feet and the sculptor's name inscribed in the wall of the niche to the right of the statue. Starting in Cromwell Road and reading right to left:

Group of 6 British architects:
Chas. Barry
W. Chambers
Chrisr. Wren
Inigo Jones
John Thorpe
Wykeham

Group of 5 British painters:
J. E. Millais
Ld. Leighton
G. F. Watts
J. Constable
J. M. W. Turner

And flanking the entrance:
Queen Alexandra (to the right)
King Edward VII (to the left)

Albert (below the arch)
Victoria (in the arch)

On either side of the arch, at eye level there is a foundation stone:
Stone laid by Edward VII (to the right)
Stone laid by Victoria (to the left)

Group of 5 British painters:
R. Cosway
G. Romney
T. Gainsborough
J. Reynolds
W. Hogarth

Group of 6 British sculptors:
Alfred Stevens
John H. Foley
F. L. Chantrey
John Flaxman
John Bacon
Grinlg. Gibbons

And around the corner in Exhibition Road:

Group of 5 British craftsmen:
William Morris
Roger Payne
J. Wedgwood
T. Chippendale
Thos. Tompion

Group of 5 British craftsmen:
Huntingn. Shaw
George Heriot
William Caxton
William Torel
St. Dunstan

Note that there are more Johns than women but that's not difficult since, excluding royalty, there are no women!

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
V&A façade - Gainsborough

Subjects commemorated i

Thomas Gainsborough

Born Sudbury, Suffolk.

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This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
V&A façade - Gainsborough

Created by i

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
V&A façade - Gainsborough

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

Lord Portal

Lord Portal

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2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
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Viscount Nuffield statue

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This is one of only a handful of statues in London unveiled while the subject was still alive. The others are listed at Fenner Brockway.

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Robert Clayton statue

Robert Clayton statue

SE1, St Thomas's Hospital, Millennium Garden

The inscription is quite badly damaged but we found a transcription in a 1776 book on the history of London, which is, we believe, very c...

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Sir Thomas More statue - SW3

Sir Thomas More statue - SW3

SW3, Chelsea Embankment

Unveiled by Horace Maybray King, then Speaker of the House of Commons. 2018: Clive Duncan kindly wrote, introduced himself and provided ...

1 subject commemorated, 4 creators
Sigmund Freud statue

Sigmund Freud statue

NW3, Fitzjohn's Avenue, Tavistock Clinic

Nemon sculpted Freud for this statue in 1931 in Vienna and there it was intended to be erected. Both subject and sculptor fled from the N...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator