The Randolph Caldecott Memorial,
St Paul's Cathedral, London
The
inscription reads: "An artist whose sweet and dainty grace has not been in
its kind surpassed: whose humour was as quaint as it was
inexhaustible."
It is possible that the head dress was not part of the
original design. We have heard that the sculptor originally intended a
simple head-scarf, but that Randolph's widow, Marian, wanted this more elaborate
head-dress. She evidently accompanied Randolph on at least one trip to
Brittany (see the illustration with her in a Breton folk dance: click here). But if you compare the picture of the
Memorial on this page with the 1896 drawing of it on our Memorials
page, it seems clear that the present head dress was in place at the time of
that drawing. We think that this type of head dress was worn by penitents
in religious processions in 19th-Century Brittany. As part of the 2002-3
restoration process, further expert advice was sought.
The Memorial was cleaned in November 2002: an unsightly coating of linseed
oil was removed from its surface. For the Reports before, during and after
restoration work, click on "Restoration"
below.
(The R C Soc UK is grateful to Suzie Wright, Conservator, St
Paul's Cathedral, for supplying this photo, taken in about Jan 2001, before
restoration work began.)
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