Victoria Memorial Hall

     Upon Queen Victoria’s death, Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, proposed the construction of the Victoria Memorial Hall at Calcutta (Kolkata), capital of the British Raj. It was to serve as the national memorial to the queen and a museum celebrating the history of the British Empire in India. George Frampton’s monumental bronze had originally been commissioned to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, but was later incorporated into the Memorial Hall. Upon its arrival in Calcutta in 1902, the statue was unveiled on the Maidan amidst a grand military ceremony. In 1921, when the Memorial Hall was finally completed, the statue was placed at some distance from the building in the front garden. The final position of the statue suggests that its design did not lend itself to the Memorial Hall as Curzon had imagined. In 1902, an additional statue was commissioned for the interior. Made by Thomas Brock, the sculptor of Britain’s national Victoria Memorial in London, the statue presents Victoria as a young woman, her portrait based on a bust sculpted by Francis Chantrey in 1839. Unveiled in 1921, Brock’s marble statue of the young queen offers a foil to Frampton’s depiction of the  aging queen. Together, the portrayals of Victoria across her long reign suggest a nostalgic vision of a timeless empire.