Queen Victoria the Grand Old Dame

How well I recall the times when I have stood near the Ontario Legislature and seen this statue of Queen Victoria.

There is something about grand old statues like this. They are public statements of the esteem we hold for important people. Why is it that statue making has become an almost dead art?

Whenever I stand beneath such a great statue as this, I feel a sense of awe.
For one thing such statues are huge, and they almost always sit atop a concrete pedestal. And when I stand below them and look up their subject is greater than life, and I feel very small.

But its more then just a physical thing. Huge statues of important historical figures, remind us of our place in the scheme of things. It has to do with power.
Victoria represents in this case, institutional power. The power of the long gone Empire. The power of government and history and military might and tradition. The whole nine yards.

And this statue of Victoria also represents the respect which the builders of the Ontario Parilaiment buildings had for their Queen. It was a statement that they belonged and were part of an imperial system. As it was said, "The sun never sets on the British Empire," and Victoria - the Great White Mother, looks down on her children of the world and all is well.

I wonder if we have stopped building great statues because of a shift in our cultural perspective. Have we become statues onto ourselves? If such is the case, there should be a great pedestal on University Avenue in Toronto, which has a small staircase up the back for viewers to climb and then to stand atop and look over our little domains? Have we culturally decided that the individual is the sum of the whole? Do we no longer see great political figures in the same way?

But yet, artistically, statues bring a city and parks, grace and nobility.

Winnie The Pooh: Winnipeg and White River's Statues

White River, Ontario - World-famous children’s character Winnie the Pooh was inspired by an orphaned bear cub, which was purchased from a trapper at White River by Captain Harry Colebourn, during WW I. He was a veternarian and his troop train had stopped at this Northern Ontario town enroute from Winnipeg. Colebourn named Winnie for his home city (Winnipeg) and took her on to England as his troop's mascot. Before shipping on to France he left Winnie at the London Zoo where she was discovered by author A.A. Milne’s delighted son Christopher. Winnie inspired Milne to write the children’s stories for his child. (Historia video) . The town has a large statue of Winnie complete with honey pot, and the popular children's character is celebrated with Winnie's Annual Hometown Festival, held the third week in August.

Statue in Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg

White River's statue of Winnie.

Our National Parliament Buildings - a treasure in sculpturing, and carving.

For those Canadians fortunate enough to tour our Parliament buildings in Ottawa, it is a visual delight for those interested in carvings in both wood and stone, and in viewing elegant portraits of former prime ministers.

This featured sculpture is of a young Queen Victoria and was sculpted by Marshall Wood in 1871.

Parliament gained a permanent home after Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the capital in 1857. The Library building, designed in the High Victorian Gothic Revival style by Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones, opened in 1876. Its circular shape and the use of galleries and alcoves were the inspiration of the first Parliamentary Librarian, Alpheus Todd. He recommended that the building be “spacious and lofty” and wisely advised that it be separated from the Centre Block by a corridor to protect it from fire.

The information for this posting came from the Government of Canada website. Please click here.

Please click, Public Art in Montreal, here.