Hamo Thornycroft "General Gordon Memorial" Statue
Gordon Reserve, Spring Street,, EAST MELBOURNE VIC 3002 - Property No B4349
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Statement of Significance
The statue of General Gordon is significant for aesthetic reasons, being the work of Hamo Thornycroft, one of the Britain's most successful and respected sculptors of the late Victorian era, a member of the dominant sculpture movement at that time, 'The New Sculpture'. Thornycroft's portrait works are among his most admired and the Gordon monument is his only public work in Australia, except for a marble piece held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Bronzed plaster versions of two of the panels were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1889. The influence of the attitude in which Thornycroft has depicted Gordon can be seen on later Australian artists and artisans when creating monuments and stained glass windows memorialising the Boer War and the First World War: the citizen as soldier, standing at ease rather than triumphal.
The statue of General Gordon is significant for historic reasons as it commemorates a significant figure of the day, General Charles George Gordon, whose life is commemorated in Britain by many monuments in addition to that by Hamo Thornycroft (in St Paul's Cathedral by Sir Joseph Edward Boehm, in Westminster Abbey and at Chatham, both by Edward Onslow Ford and in Rochester Cathedral). The monument also commemorates a significant event of the day: Gordon's death in 1885 at the storming of Khartoum by the Mahdi, the spiritual and temporal leader of a Muslim uprising in Sudan. For Australia, there is also historical significance in the fact that news of this event was one of the first major pieces of news to arrive by the under-water telegraph cable laid in 1872 that linked Australia to Britain.
The Gordon monument also represents Victoria's participation in Australia's first steps on a world stage: while New South Wales sent a contingent to Sudan and declined Victoria's offer of soldiers, the people of Melbourne then needed to make a different gesture with this magnificent monument as a result. The work also has historical significance as Melbourne's third public statue to commemorate an individual (following the Burke and Wells, erected 1865 and the Redmond Barry, 1887) and has one of the most important positions for sculpture in the city.The statue of General Gordon is significant for social reasons as it commemorates a person whose character was held to represent the highest ideals of the Victorian age, displaying steadfast courage as well as charity. Gordon's death caused an outpouring of public grief in Australia as well as Britain: the Melbourne unveiling was described in a newspaper of the day as, 'rather the canonising of a saint than the crowning of a hero'. Gordon had also fulfilled perhaps the ultimate criterion for being a hero: he had died at his post. Just as Burke and Wills are more famous than Sturt, and Scott is more known than Amundsen, Gordon's death secured his place in history when memory of specific deeds has faded.
Classified: 30/04/2005
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Hamo Thornycroft "General Gordon Memorial" Statue - Physical Description 1
The bronze full-length figure of General Gordon is standing looking down, lost in thought. The pose is informal, arms folded, his cane (his famous 'magic wand') under his left arm, right hand to the chin and left hand firmly grasping a small bible clenched beneath his right elbow; the weight is on the right foot with the left on a broken cannon. The work is rich in detail: Gordon is wearing a crumpled army patrol jacket, belt undone, and without hat, sword or weapon; his binocular field glasses are slung on his back. Thornycroft wished to represent a military environment but also to express Gordon's dislike of bloodshed and war and Gordon's brother also wanted a representation that was 'as little military as possible'. Thornycroft, by showing Gordon with down-cast eyes perhaps avoided the problem of conveying his subject's apparently piercing gaze.
Getsy describes the pose as 'exemplary in its complicated bodily arrangement that expands on traditional contrapposto (a natural pose with the weight of one leg, the shoulder, and hips counterbalancing one another). The arrangement of the body echoes the psychological traits [Thornycroft] ascribed to Gordon through a face that conveys both strength and thoughtfulness' [Getsy in Bostrom].
The figure is facing south, making it difficult to study or take a clear photograph against the light.
The pedestal is stone, 5.65 metres high, and the figure, 3.30 metres high. Around the pedestal, there are four bronze bas-reliefs illustrating significant stages of Gordon's life, which is also decorated with bronze wreaths and swags. The work is surrounded by a circle of low posts supporting a link chain. The figure is signed on the base (on the side under Gordon's right foot) 'Thornycroft A.R.A.' (Thornycroft was elected R.A. in 1888, the year of this work, but presumably it was finished before the election) and shows the founder's mark 'J. Moore' on the base of the figure.Hamo Thornycroft "General Gordon Memorial" Statue - Intactness
The work appears to be in good condition.
Conservation was carried out during the first half of 1994. Conservators found the bronze had been uncleanly cut with numerous fissures, spots of porosity and sand holes, some of which had been repaired with alloy insertions. The 1994 conservation included removal of pollutive salts and copper stains. The work was done by the Victorian Centre for the Conservation of Cultural Material Inc (a full report is in the Melbourne City Council file). During this work, the conservators' work shed was set on fire by a young man protesting against the Boer War: the statue required treatment to remove smoke damage.
By 1995, anti-pigeon spikes had been applied.
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ROSAVILLEVictorian Heritage Register H0408
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MEDLEY HALLVictorian Heritage Register H0409
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DRUMMOND TERRACEVictorian Heritage Register H0872
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