Plaster maquette for an unidentified War Memorial
The photographer is not recorded however other of Bose's works were photographed by the Edinburgh photographer Francis Caird Inglis and he also sat to Drummond Young for his portrait.
The maquette is for an as yet unidentified War Memorial and may represent a design submitted but never realised. Its imagery suggests that it was probably for a Scottish Memorial.
The maquette suggests a strong awareness of the work of the English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens HRSA who alongside Sir Norman Baker and Sir Reginald Blomfield during the First World War was appointed to the newly established [1917] Imperial (since 1960 Commonwealth) War Graves Commission with responsibility for the design and layout of its cemeteries and associated Memorials.
Lutyens was best known as the architect responsible for the cenotaph on Whitehall in London. Originally erected as a temporary wood and plaster structure for Armistice day 1919, such was its impact that the Lloyd George Government bowed to public pressure to have the Memorial rebuilt exactly in portland stone, which structure was unveiled on 11 November 1920 by King George V and stands to this day as the focal point of Britain's national Remembrance of her fallen across all conflicts.
The maquette featured in the present photograph shares at its centre a tapered stone pylon supporting an empty tomb (which gives the cenotaph its name) and it seems inconceivable that Bose did not have Lutyens' Cenotaph in mind.
However Bose has topped his design by a massive bronze sculpture of a kneeling angel who protectively cradles a kilt-wearing youth who kneels in front of her. The pylon itself is surrounded by a plinth approached on each of its four sides by shallow flights of steps separated by curved walls echoing the tiered structure of the main pylon, and with four corner obelisks topped by bronze Roman style light fittings. The inner face of the curved walls facing the central pylon contain built in seating and a large bronze plaque topped by a laurel wreath is affixed to the lower tier of the short end of the pylon directly below the front face of the bronze sculpture group atop on which an inscription and or the names of the dead would be inscribed.
Other than the presence of the angel and the kilted youth the maquette refrains from overt imagery or symbolism which remains one of the most powerful features of Lutyens' design.
Additional details
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Object data
Date c.1919 - c.1926 Accession 2024.0069.105 Type Photograph Black and white print Materials Support paper, photographic Dimensions Support size of the print
19.8cm x 17.8cmAcquisition Gift Galloway Family (September 24th, 2024) -
Exhibitions
No exhibition data for this record.
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