Violence into virtue: ‘liberal empire’ and Victorian statuary in St Paul’s Cathedral

Abstract

The article investigates the collusion between colonialism and liberalism in Victorian Britain through the imperial statuary in St Paul’s Cathedral. In particular, it examines the commemorative statues of colonial heroes from British India, with particular reference to the statues of James Napier, Henry Montgomery Lawrence and Samuel Browne: it places these figures in their historical context, explores their often conflicted relation to the East India Company and imperial rule in South Asia, and teases out the multiple intensities of meaning – personal, professional, ambivalent, messy – pulsing under these statues. A close examination of the statuary reveals the impulses and anxieties around the imperial male body that went into their making and how the marble both concealed and congealed these stories to produce sanitized versions of violence and empire.