Western Daily Press (Saturday)
VERDICTS ON DIANA STATUE
ROYAL fans have given their verdicts on the new statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, after Kensington Palace’s gardens were reopened to the public.
More than 100 visitors flocked to the Sunken Garden in the first hour of the statue’s public unveiling yesterday, with some queuing to get in two hours before opening.
Royal family superfan Terry Hutt, 86, from Weston-super-Mare, waited at the gates clad in a Union flag suit and top hat, and called the statue unveiling a “dream come true”.
He said: “This statue is something we’ve been looking forward to for many years.
“I was one of the fortunate ones to meet Princess Diana. I was at St Bart’s campaigning to save the hospital and she was opening a building for homeless people and she thought I was homeless.
“She sent me a nod and a few words. Ever since, I’ve always been around for her. I was surprised that in the statue she wasn’t on her own, but again, I swallow my pride and I like what I see.”
Donna Burton, 50, from Newcastle admitted that she felt underwhelmed by pictures of the statue initially, saying: “I wasn’t that impressed really. I just thought it didn’t really look like her – but I think it must be hard to make a statue look like someone.”
She added: “I think it would have been a bit lonely for her on her own. I would have preferred the kids to be William and Harry.”
Meanwhile, Sara Terrence, who lives in London but is originally from New Zealand, said the statue “gives people something to come and look at and remember her by”.
The Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex reunited for the unveiling of Gloucestershire sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley’s artwork on Thursday, saying they hoped it would be “a symbol of (Diana’s) life and her legacy”.
The figure of the princess, who would have celebrated her 60th birthday on Thursday, is surrounded by three children and depicts Diana, with short cropped hair, in the later years of her life.
The palace’s Sunken Garden – one of the places Diana loved most at the palace – has been redesigned during the past two years and features more than 4,000 individual flowers, including forget-me-nots which were adored by the princess.
Mr Rank-Broadley added: “Uppermost in my mind was to do something for the princes, the princess was a very public figure and in many respects an icon but she was somebody’s mother. So I paid the greatest heed to both princes in what they had to say.
“And in many ways it was a collaborative effort, they made a huge contribution, in many ways I could say the sculpture belongs to them as well – they helped make it.”
It is 1.25-times life size and was cast by Castle Fine Arts Foundry in the traditional “lost-wax” process, with a patina of a bluish green over black.
Media critics were largely unimpressed by the statue.
Alastair Sooke, chief art critic at the Daily Telegraph, said the statue “lacked warmth” and described Diana’s pose as “combative and confrontational, not maternal”
He said: “There’s something distinctly masculine about that stance, squaring up to the viewer.”
Meanwhile the Guardian described it as an “awkward, lifeless shrine” and a “spiritless hunk of nonsense”.
Jonathan Jones wrote: “The sentiment splurges across the flower beds like an uncontrolled wail of artistically absurd pathos.
“A larger than life Diana, who stands in an awkward, stiff, lifeless pose and has a face that’s more manly than I remember.
“Modelled apparently with thickly gloved hands and no photo to consult, she protects two children in her arms while a third lurks behind her.”
He speculated that Charles must have been involved because it looks like his ‘insipid’ artistic taste.
Robin Simon, editor of the British Art Journal, accepts it may be “what you might come across in the local garden centre” in the eyes of some.