Victoria Memorial, Kolkata

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This article is about the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. For other memorials to Queen Victoria, see Victoria Memorial (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 22°32′42″N 88°20′33″E / 22.5449°N 88.3425°E / 22.5449; 88.3425

Victoria Memorial
Victoria Memorial situated in Kolkata.jpg
Façade of the Victoria Memorial
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Established1921; 100 years ago (1921)
LocationJawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata, West Bengal,  India
TypeMuseum
Collection sizeNearly 30,000 (31 March 2009)[1]
ArchitectWilliam Emerson, Vincent Esch
Websitevictoriamemorial-cal.org

The Victoria Memorial is a large marble building in Kolkata, which was built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Empress Victoria, and is now a museum under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture.[2] The memorial lies on the Maidan and is one of the famous monuments of Kolkata.

History[]

Empress Victoria

In January 1901, on the death of Empress Victoria,[3] then Lord Curzon, suggested the creation of a fitting memorial. Lord Curzon proposed the construction of a grand building with a museum and gardens.[4]

Curzon said,

"Let us, therefore, have a building, stately, spacious, monumental and grand, to which every newcomer in Kolkata will turn, to which all the resident population, European and Native, will flock, where all classes will learn the lessons of history and see revived before their eyes the marvels of the past."[5]

The Prince of Wales, laid the foundation stone on 4 January 1906, and it was formally opened to the public in 1921.[6]

In 1912, before the construction of the Victoria Memorial was finished, Emperor George V announced the transfer of the capital of India from Kolkata to New Delhi.[7] Thus, the Victoria Memorial was built in what would be a provincial city rather than a capital.

The Victoria Memorial was mainly funded by British Officials, & individuals of India.[5] The Politicians and people of India responded generously to Lord Curzon's appeal for funds, and the total cost of construction of the monument, amounting to one crore, five lakhs of Rupees (₹), was entirely derived from their voluntary subscriptions.[8]

The construction of the Victoria Memorial was delayed by Curzon's departure from India in 1905 with a subsequent loss of local enthusiasm for the project and the need for testing of the foundations. The Victoria Memorial's foundation stone was set in 1906 and the building opened in 1921.[9] The work of construction was entrusted to Messrs. Martin & Co. of Kolkata. Work on the superstructure began in 1910. After 1947, some additions were made to the Memorial.

A smaller victoria memorial also got constructed in Hardoi District of central provinces which is now converted into a city club for recreation . It is a building whose compound also saw Mahatma Gandhi addressing Hardoi during 1930's

Design and architecture[]

Empress Victoria's statue inside the memorial
Statue of Motherhood, at the memorial

The Victoria Memorial's architect was William Emerson (1843–1924).[10][11] The design is in the Indo-Saracenic revivalist style which uses a mixture of British and Mughal elements with Venetian, Egyptian, Deccani architectural influences.[12] The building is 338 by 228 feet (103 by 69 m) and rises to a height of 184 feet (56 m). It is constructed of white Makrana marble.[13]

The gardens of the Victoria Memorial were designed by Lord Redesdale and David Prain. Emerson's assistant, Vincent Jerome Esch, designed the bridge of the north aspect and the garden gates. In 1902, Emerson engaged Esch to sketch his original design for the Victoria Memorial.

Gallery under the dome with scenes from the life of Queen Victoria
The Apotheosis
The Jubilee service at Westminister Abbey
The Diamond Jubilee Service at St Paul's Cathedral
The Lying in State

Atop the central dome of the Victoria Memorial is the 16 ft (4.9 m) figure of the Angel of Victory. Surrounding the dome are allegorical sculptures including Art, Architecture, Justice, and Charity and above the North Porch are Motherhood, Prudence and Learning.

Angel of Kolkata atop Victoria Memorial

The Victoria Memorial is built of white Makrana marble.[13] In design it echoes the Taj Mahal with its dome, four subsidiaries, octagonal-domed chattris, high portals, terrace, and domed corner towers.[citation needed]

Museum[]

The Victoria Memorial has 25 galleries.[14] These include the royal gallery, the national leader's gallery, the portrait gallery, central hall, the sculpture gallery, the arms and armory gallery, and the newer, Kolkata gallery. The Victoria Memorial has the largest single collection of the works of Thomas Daniell (1749–1840) and his nephew, William Daniell (1769–1837).[15] It also has a collection of rare and antiquarian books such as the illustrated works of William Shakespeare, the Arabian Nights and the Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam as well as books about kathak dance and thumri music by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. However, the galleries and their exhibitions, the programmatic elements of the memorial do not compete with the purely architectural spaces or voids.[16][17]

Statue of Lord Curzon

Victoria Gallery[]

The Victoria Gallery displays several portraits of Empress Victoria and Prince Albert, and paintings illustrating their lives, by Jansen and Winterhalter. The oil paintings are copies of those in London. They include Victoria receiving the sacrament at her coronation in Westminster Abbey (June 1838); Victoria's marriage to Albert in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace (1840); the christening of the Prince of Wales in Windsor Castle (1842); the marriage of Edward VII to Princess Alexandra (1863); Victoria at the First Jubilee service at Westminster Abbey (1887) and the Second Jubilee service at St. Paul's Cathedral (June 1897). Empress Victoria's childhood rosewood pianoforte and her correspondence desk from Windsor Castle stand in the center of the room. Edward VII presented these items to the Victoria Memorial. On the south wall hangs the Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin's oil painting of the state entry of Edward VII in Jaipur in 1876.[18][19][20]

Kolkata gallery[]

In the mid-1970s, the matter of a new gallery devoted to the visual history of Kolkata was promoted by Saiyid Nurul Hasan, the minister for education. In 1986, Hasan became the governor of West Bengal and chairman of the Victoria Memorial board of trustees. In November 1988, Hasan hosted an international seminar on the Historical perspectives for the Kolkata tercentenary. The Kolkata gallery concept was agreed and a design was developed leading to the opening of the gallery in 1992.[5] The Kolkata gallery houses a visual display of the history and development of Kolkata when the capital of India was transferred to New Delhi. The gallery also has a life-size diorama of Chitpur road in the late 1800s.[21]

Gardens[]

The gardens at the Victoria memorial cover 64 acres (260,000 m2) and are maintained by a team of 21 gardeners. They were designed by Redesdale and David Prain. On Esch's bridge, between narrative panels by Goscombe John, there is a bronze statue of Victoria, by George Frampton. Empress Victoria is seated on her throne. In the paved quadrangles and elsewhere around the building, other statues commemorate Hastings, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, Robert Clive, Arthur Wellesley, and James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie. To the south of the Victoria, Memorial building is the Edward VII memorial arch. The arch has a bronze equestrian statue of Edward VII by Bertram Mackennal and a marble statue of Curzon by F. W. Pomeroy. The garden also contains statues of Lord William Bentinck, governor-general of India (1833–1835), George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, governor-general of India (1880–84), and Rajendra Nath Mookerjee, a pioneer industrialist of Bengal.[5] Following an order of the West Bengal High Court in 2004, an entry fee was imposed for the gardens, a decision welcomed by the general public except for few voices of dissent.[22]

Gallery[]

  • Victoria Memorial with St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata, in the foreground.

  • Victoria Memorial illuminated at night.

  • Victoria Memorial Illuminated at night

  • Summer sunset

  • Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata

  • Lakes of victoria

  • South side

  • King Edward VII Arch in the Victoria Memorial Gardens.

  • Empress Victoria

  • Lion statue at Victoria Memorial

  • Victoria Memorial and The 42.

References[]

  1. ^ Government of India, Ministry of Culture, Annual report 2008–2009. p. 30
  2. ^ Victoria Memorial Archived 2 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine. www.iloveindia.com.
  3. ^ Lehman H. E. "Lives of England's monarchs." AuthorHouse, 2005. p390. ISBN 1-4184-9692-8, 9781418496920. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  4. ^ Herbert E. W. "Flora's Empire: British Gardens in India." Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. p224. ISBN 0-8122-0505-7, 9780812205053. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Dutta K. "Kolkata: a cultural and literary history." S – 131. ISBN 1-902669-59-2, 9781902669595. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  6. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 February 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^ Gordon D. (ed.) "Planning twentieth-century capital cities." Planning, History and Environment Series. Routledge, 2006 p182. ISBN 0-203-48156-9, 9780203481561. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  8. ^ "History of the Victoria Memorial Hall". Official Website of the Victoria Memorial Hall. Archived from the original on 13 June 2003.
  9. ^ Sharma A. "Famous monuments of India." Pinnacle Technology, 2011. ISBN 1-61820-545-5, 9781618205452. Accessed at Google Books, 14 December 2013.
  10. ^ "Victoria Memorial." Archived 10 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine www.kolkatainformation.com.
  11. ^ Kumar R. "Essays on Indian art and architecture." Discovery Publishing House, 2003. p16. ISBN 8171417159, 9788171417155. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  12. ^ Knight L. "Britain in India, 1858 – 1947." Anthem Press, 2012. p85. ISBN 0-85728-517-3, 9780857285171. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b Hermann M. "Architecture in India." GRIN Verlag, 2011. ISBN 3-640-92977-2, 9783640929771. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  14. ^ Chander P. "India past and present." APH Publishing, 2003. p148 ISBN 8176484555, 9788176484558. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  15. ^ Freitag W. M. "Artbooks: a basic bibliography of monographs on artists." 2503. Victoria Memorial (Calcutta). A descriptive catalog of Daniells work in the Victoria Memorial (Museum). 1976. Routledge, 2nd edition, 2013. ISBN 1-134-83041-6, 9781134830411. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  16. ^ Dutta A. "The Bureaucracy of beauty: design in the age of its global reproducibility." Routledge, 2013 p294. ISBN 1-135-86402-0, 9781135864026. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  17. ^ Moorhouse G. "Calcutta." Faber & Faber, 2012. ISBN 0-571-28113-3, 9780571281138. Accessed at Google Books, 13 December 2013.
  18. ^ "The Royal gallery." www.victoriamemorial-cal.org. Archived 24 February 2005 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  19. ^ Dutta A. "Gallery reopens at Victoria Memorial after a decade." The Hindu, 12 September 2012. Accessed 14 December 2013.
  20. ^ Victoria Memorial Hall. Archived 6 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine www.culturalindia.net. Accessed 14 December 2013.
  21. ^ "Calcutta Gallery." www.victoriamemorial-cal.org. Archived 22 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 1 January 2017.
  22. ^ "Victoria Fee for Good Cause". Times of India. 21 December 2004. Retrieved 31 March 2020.

External links[]

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