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POLITICAL SCULPTURE the Dark Brown REVIEWS army plan, though it was some time before it was certain that Hitler would authorise it. When POLITICAL SCULPTURE and why this happened is a much THERE IS AN over life-sized bronze of Sir traditional art training, winning many prizes and weaker part of the book, perhaps Winston Churchill in bullish pose to the left of scholarships, but he longed for something edgier. because for Müller’s argument it the door from Members’ Lobby into the House While expressing admiration for his contempo- is what the army did in 1940 that of Commons’ Chamber. The dull, dark brown raries, notably Henry Moore, Alberto Giacomet- really matters. patina of the majority of this sculpture, has ti, Elizabeth Frink, Charles Sergeant Jagger and This is nonetheless an impor- been rubbed away on the right foot to a shiny, Jacob Epstein, it was the grandfather of modern tant argument because it finally light pinkie-brown: an indication of its role as sculpture, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), who was lays to rest the myth established talisman to nervous Tory maiden speechers. In ‘his God, his guiding star’. after 1945 by the German generals recent decades, the feet of David Lloyd George, On leaving the Royal Academy, Roberts-Jones that they had been forced along and Clement Attlee, have also received a good established a studio in Chelsea, which was hit a path they had not wanted by rubbing for similar reasons. Representative and during the London Blitz, destroying most of the a wayward commander who did symbolic, three-dimensional and tactile and, sculptor’s pre-war work in the process. not understand the risks he ran. unlike a painting, intruding benignly or other- At the time he was serving in the Royal Artillery, Right through to the invasion in wise into our interior and exterior spaces, love it initially stationed in Northern Ireland and later summer 1941, the army under- or hate it, public portrait sculpture matters. saw combat in Burma. Regarding the latter, estimated the Soviet Union and If you walk from Members’ Roberts-Jones recalled, as assumed that if they could knock Lobby out into Parliament Square paraphrased by Jonathan out the French Army in six weeks, and then along Whitehall to Black, that he had ‘never they must surely be able to do the Trafalgar Square, you will pass been more frightened, and same to Soviet forces. Of course, many more memorials to yet had never felt more alive this is a narrowly military inter- various worthies, four of which and observant.’ On his return, (including Clement Atlee in Roberts-Jones’ experience Hitler always Members’ Lobby and Field and status as a war veteran, in Marshal Slim on Whitehall), tandem with his talent, was to harboured the are the work of Ivor Roberts- give him the edge over his fellow idea that at some Jones (1913-1996), a name sculptors in regard to public mon- perhaps unfamiliar to History ument commissions. point Germany Today regulars, this reviewer The Churchill sculpture in might need ‘living included. And yet, during his Members’ Lobby is by Oscar lifetime, Roberts-Jones was Nemon. In Parliament space’ in the East regarded as Britain’s leading Abstraction and Reality Square, however, you can figure sculptor for public mon- The Sculpture of view another mighty bronze pretation of events and although uments: the ‘last icon maker’. Ivor Roberts-Jones figure of the great man by Müller does not ignore politics and The present volume is the Jonathan Black and Sara Ayres Roberts-Jones. Unveiled by ideology, it takes a back seat. Yet first in-depth study of his life Philip Wilson Publishers 320pp £25 Churchill’s widow, Clemen- Hitler’s vision of a new territorial and work – covering drawings tine, in 1973, it is arguably empire, peopled by sturdy German and preparatory sketches, as well as sculptures – the sculptor’s masterpiece. In support of this, peasants and governed with harsh supported by the Arts and Humanities Research two of the five chapters in the current volume colonial methods, nevertheless Council and the Henry Moore Institute. It will focus on this commission and then subsequent created a campaign for which the go a long way to restoring this lost reputation. versions in Oslo, New Orleans and Prague. The army leadership had not really authors rightly draw attention to the reso- been planning. Their concerns The dark brown patina of nances between Roberts-Jones’ depiction of were generally governed by pow- Churchill – an imposing dark mass in his great er-political considerations, while the over life-size bronze of coat, leaning on a walking stick and brooding Hitler was motivated by a longing Churchill has been rubbed into eternity – and Rodin’s controversial bronze for a new German hegemony that megalith of the writer, Honoré de Balzac (1896- would rescue Europe and Europe- away on the right foot by 8). That Roberts-Jones achieves such presence an ‘culture’, create a new German Tory maiden speechers and gravitas is all the more surprising, when you imperial ruling class and solve discover that the sculptor was deeply ambiv- Germany’s tight economic and re- Abstraction and Reality contains a sequence alent about his subject, describing Britain’s sources situation. The army’s plan of scholarly essays, followed by a catalogue redoubtable war leader as resembling ‘a boiled to smash the Red Army quickly raisonné, and is very well illustrated. Setting the sweet’ in a uniform. But then many Britons, past and put the Soviet Union in its scene, the opening chapter covers Roberts-Jones and present, are similarly ambivalent. Yet, for place was more modest, though life and career. The future artist was born in Roberts-Jones, such contradiction was crucial. it still seems as fanciful as Hitler’s. Shropshire in 1913, initially studied painting at As he himself declared, in order for the portrait But no doubt NATO was drawing Goldsmiths College, London (1932-34), after sculpture to truly ‘live’, it must possess ‘dignity up similar contingency plans 20 which, having made the decision to focus on and caricature, a kind of irony’, as well as ‘edge years later and may perhaps be sculpture, he transferred to the Royal Academy and a suggestion of an inner life’. doing it again today. Schools in Piccadilly. Here, he received a very Jacqueline Riding Richard Overy JULY 2015 HISTORY TODAY 63.
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