ANOTHER STATUE

Evening Star, Issue 23123, 24 November 1938, Page 15

ANOTHER STATUE

Statues of famous men sometimes seem fated to provoke greater controversy than was aroused by the subjects themselves during their lifetime, saya the Manchester Gaurdian.’ London has recently provided some conspicuous examples, and another is reported from' New York. In a parkway adjoining a new bridge across the Hudson lliver there has been erebted a IGft figure of a booted, helmeted, and sword-carrying sea captain, purporting to represent the great navigator whose discovery of that river is , commemorated in its name. A request from the Park Commissioner that the City of New York should provide funds for its floodlighting has brought an unexpected answer from the deputy-mayor* “It is the ugliest statue in Neill , York,” he replies. “ The shaft is ugly, the figure is ugly, the whole thing is ugly. Now just forget your idea of lighting it up at night. Is there not some kind of shadow you could turn on that would make it look dark in the daytime?” Whereupon the Park Commissioner admits that New York has some of the most awful statues in the world, but contends that the Hudson statue is one,of the least ugly. • The ensuing controversy has brought to light the curious fact that whether the statue is a work of art or not thero is no ground for supposing that it is in the least like the original himself. “ We know nothing,” says'tbe authoritative ‘ Dictionary of American Biography,’ “ of Henry Hudson’s personal appearance.” It seems that all the existing statues and portraits alleged to be Hudson’s are based on a painting in the New York City Hall, which, on being restored in 1929, was found to represent not Hudson, but a Spaniard of high distinction who lived about the same time.” ■ >