Sic Transit Gloria
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After the experience of statues being dismantled in the wave of BLM last year it is poignant to see a depiction of a similar event right at the beginning of this nation. For someone born and raised in Europe this is a fresh view, untainted by the mantras of school textbooks.
Poor George: Statue of King George III together with his horse being pulled down in 1776
This painting of the statue being pulled down is in the museum of the New York Historical Society, 77th Street and Central Park West. (I saw it there almost by accident in the main hall on the second floor on my recent visit, to see Bruce McCall’s zany exhibit).
Apparently all of it went to smithereens, and almost nothing was left.
What I love is the fact that the only piece remaining, the tail of the horse, is in the possession of the Society, and is here on display inside a plexiglass case:
The internet shows that the event inspired many artists. In several paintings and drawings the statue is depicted exactly at the moment of falling, pivoting at almost 45 degrees. Not even a photographic camera 100 years later could have captured it in this fleeting position.
The crowds vary widely in costumes and demeanor, dressed as gentlemen or rabble-rousing plebs.
I doubt any of the painters was at the scene; it all had to composed from bits and pieces going by the layout of the locale, earlier paintings of the statue intact, accounts by witnesses, and a fertile imagination.
And back to the tail! Would you believe a story of history where at the very end, literally, just the tail would be left?
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