Statue

V&A façade - Watts

Erection date: 1909

Inscription

G. F. Watts

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!

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

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

Subjects commemorated i

G. F. Watts

Born in London. His piano-making father named him after Handel. Married brief...

Read More

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

Created by i

Richard Reginald Goulden

Born Dover. In WW1 served with the Royal Engineers in France.  Other London w...

Read More

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

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

Huskisson statue

Huskisson statue

SW1, Millbank, Pimlico Gardens

Noting the stance and the toga, Osbert Sitwell described this statue as "boredom rising from the bath." Peter Duby tells us that the stat...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
St Dunstans - Elizabeth I statue

St Dunstans - Elizabeth I statue

EC4, Fleet Street

On stone above QE's statue: "Parochial Schools. St Dunstan in the west. A.D.1839." The history of this statue (and those of King Lud and ...

1 subject commemorated, 5 creators
Boadicea/Boudicca/Boudica

Boadicea/Boudicca/Boudica

SW1, Westminster Bridge

The horses look totally out of control to us; no wonder the two daughters look so worried.

1 subject commemorated, 5 creators
City of London School 1 - Bacon

City of London School 1 - Bacon

EC4, Victoria Embankment, 60

We've listed the statues left to right across the front of the building, with More all on his lonesome on the west (left) facade.  The 1...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
FCO - D unknown

FCO - D unknown

SW1, Horse Guards Road, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign Office was completed in 1873 to the 1861 designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, with Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt for the St James’s...