The Messenger (David Wynne sculpture) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Messenger |
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| Year | 1981 |
| Subject | statue |
| Location | Sutton, Greater London |
| 51°21′34″N 0°11′26″W / 51.35944°N 0.19056°W | |
The Messenger is a statue by the English sculptor David Wynne, OBE of a horse and rider. It was installed in the town centre of Sutton in Greater London, England in 1981.
Appearance
The statue features a horse and nude young male rider, created in bronze with very dark patination. It is located directly outside the main entrance to Quadrant House (in the Quadrant), adjacent to Sutton railway station. The horse, with a slightly raised left leg, looks towards the station. The boy-rider, seated bareback, raises his left hand in the air above his head and his right hand to his mouth, as if calling out. It is fully life-size and mounted on a 7-foot plinth of marble and granite slabs. The total height is 150 inches.
Location
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The company had initially considered that the work should be installed high up, above the entrance lobby. However, Wynne advised against this, feeling that the distance created would militate against the engagement he wanted people to have with the work. It would be perceived as two-dimensional, depriving people of the full three-dimensions they would feel by walking around it. So the statue was installed at ground level in front of the entrance to the building, enabling people to get close up to it.
Describing his thoughts moments before the unveiling, David Wynne wrote in his 1982 book The Messenger:
It is a proud moment for the sculptor when he sees a crowd of expectant and rather puzzled people gazing at an ungainly shrouded shape in the most prominent position outside a gleaming new building. Will they be surprised, pleased, disappointed or even appalled when the cover comes off? Too late to change it now!
