Sepia Saturday 220: 22 March 2014
Alan from Sepia Saturday says:
Our sepia friend Postcardy suggested statues and monuments as a theme for this week and also pointed us in the direction of this 1914 photograph of the Jefferson Statue in Columbia (which is taken from the Library of Congress collection on Flickr Commons). Photographers of all ages and all times have always been drawn to statues : there is nothing like a mounted equestrian hero or a stone-clad voluptuous heroine to get the camera shutters clicking. So for Sepia Saturday 220 (post your posts on or around Saturday 22 March 2014) all you have to do is to highlight an old photograph which in any convoluted way fits in with the theme image and tell us a little about it. Post your post, link your link, visit your visitors and help make Sepia Saturday a monument to blogging nostalgia.
Statues...I love 'em. Brisbane's got quite a few when you think about it. We got all excited about them during World Expo '88 and the ones from Expo are scattered throughout the city and Queensland now delighting tourists and resident alike. Have a squizz here if you're interested.
City workers might recline and admire Queen Victoria's statue in Queen's Park or the one of TJ Ryan our 19th Premier and ponder on his early demise. I live in the Federal seat of Ryan named after him.
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| From State Library of Queensland - View across Queen's Park. Palm trees, trimmed lawns, and flower beds set the scene for a relaxing moment in the park. The old Executive Building stands on the left with a statue of Queen Victoria, first unveiled by Lord Chelmsford in 1906, in front of it. Field guns were located in the park either side of the Queen Victoria memorial, commemorating Queensland's participation in the South African War of 1899-1902. Motor cars can be seen parked along George Street. |
Here's a picture of the day the statue of Queen Victoria was unveiled.
Goodness! They were pretty excited then too.
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| From State Library of Queensland |
And again in 1925 when they unveiled the one of TJ Ryan. I think they must have moved the statue since if you look at where it's located now on Google Maps.
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| State Library of Queensland - Crowd gathers at the unveiling of a statue of T. J. Ryan at Queens Garden in Brisbane, 1925 |
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There's lots of sculpture to see now at our beautiful Gallery of Modern Art including an elephant standing on its head here....and an exhibition of Cia Guo Qiang's work which I have yet to see but of which I am hearing rave reviews. You can read more about it here.
When I was ten we travelled to Europe where there was lots....and lots of sculpture.
It is important to record what a dag I have been in my life...I see with shame that I am wearing socks with sandals...sigh. The ignominy will never end.
The statue above reminds me of many hours in Latin trying to translate Ovid's Cupid and Psyche. But I think it is actually a photo of Berninis sculpture of Apollo and Daphne.
Statues galore...I'm ashamed that I can't name them.
So we were fasincated with things classical then. What an amazing place.
Here are some snaps I found of more statues from my grandfather's collection. I think they're rather sweet. And to think that I was only in the same place a couple of weekends ago. Boy the trees have grown.
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| Tom McLoughlin at the Archibald Fountain Hyde Park, Sydney c. 1930s |
If you look at the photo of Tom, you can see the Anzac Memorial in the background there. Here is another photo of it at about the same time. To check out what it looks like today go here.
It is a sculpture (by Sicard) of Apollo with Diana to the left and Theseus to the right.
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| Kit McLoughlin at the Archibald Fountain Hyde Park Sydney |
This is written on the back of Kit's photo.
Perhaps the most loved photo in our family of a sculpture is this one of my mother aged 4 and 1/2 precisely on the lioness statue in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney.
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| Barbara McLoughlin c 1939 |
Here are some later photos of my mother at Ashfield Park near the war memorial.
Who remembers playing "Statues" when they were a kid.? Great game.
For more statues and memorial head over here.
Comments
Is your statue of Apollo and Daphne in Rome? If so, I saw it at the Borghese. Amazing! So smooth. No sign of a chisel anywhere.
I have never heard of a "dag" here.
And, yes, we played statues - one of the few games you could play in a primary school of very few kids
All those statues but your post made me think about our trip to the Expo in 1988. It was one of the first trips away with my husband-to-be. I have a picture sitting on a park bench with a clown statue sitting beside me. I will have to go and find it......it's in a photo album somewhere.