Overall: 21 1/4 x 26 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches (54 x 67.3 x 19.1 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B2001.2.360
Gallery Label:
This bronze is one of around fifty casts commissioned by the London Art Union, a membership organization that distributed statuettes and prints as prizes to its subscribers. It shows the queen riding sidesaddle, wearing a modern informal riding costume but adorned with the ribbon of the Order of the Garter. The composition was adapted from an earlier monumental equestrian statue of the queen, exhibited in 1851 as a centerpiece of the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace. Thomas Thornycroft and his wife, Mary, and later their son Hamo, were successful sculptors whose patrons included the royal family and the government. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016