Manual Ref* NFnrNOR061 Show 10 images 571
Title*

Charity - former N&N Hospital

County Norfolk   District Council Norwich City Council 
Civil Parish or equivalent Norwich  Town/Village* Norwich 
Road Newmarket Road 
Precise Location In front of 1902 Boardman Nurses' home, facing new pond 
OS Grid Ref TG226077  Postcode NR2 
Previous location(s) On Boileau fountain at junction of Ipswich and Newmarket Roads(photo 061a) ; thence gardens of Norfolk and Norwich Hospital (photo 61b) 
Setting On fountain  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Sir Joseph Boehm  Sculptor(s)   
Thomas Jeckyll  Architect(s)   
Young & Co  Foundry   

Commissioned by

Bequeathed in the will of Sir John Boileau in 1869 

Design & Constrn period

1874 

Date of installing

1876 

Exact date of unveiling

Re-installed 24/1/2008 

Category

Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type

Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type: Statue of Charity (mother and child)

Subject Type

Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type

Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Charity with child  Bronze  H. 140 W. & D. 60 cms. 
Plinth  Bronze  H. 10 W. & D. 60 cms. 

Work is

Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

Charles Church Development 

Listing status

Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition

Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail: Green bloom

Structural Condition

Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism

Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition

Good Fair Poor

Risk

No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks J.E.BOEHM 1874 /YOUNG & CO/ FOUNDERS/ PIMLICO 
Inscriptions On plaque at bottom of statue: THIS STATUE, ORIGINALLY PART OF A/ FOUNTAIN AT THE JUNCTION OF THE NEWMARKET/ AND IPSWICH ROADS WAS ERECTED IN/ 1876 BY SIR JOHN BOILEAU OF KETTERINGHAM/ IN MEMORY OF HIS WIFE CATHERINE./ THE STATUE WAS DESIGNED BY/ SIR JOSEPH BOEHM AND IT IS SAID TO RESEMBLE/ LADY CATHERINE. IN 1965, WHEN/ THE FOUNTAIN WAS DISMANTLED, THE STATUE/ WAS MOVED TO ITS PRESENT POSITION./ SIR JOHN BOILEAU WAS HIMSELF/ A GENEROUS BENEFACTOR OF THE/ NORFOLK AND NORWICH HOSPITAL. 

Description (physical)

The main figure - a combination of mother and water nymph- offers her child a drink from a sea-shell. The group was the centre piece of the fountain bequeathed by Sir John Boileau on his death in 1869 with £1,000. The statue was set above the main drinking fountain facing the City, and unveiled in 4 November 1876. Boehm responded to the commission emphasising the gift of water; Charity is usually shown surrounded by a number of children and giving suck to the youngest- see the group in the courtyard of the Fisherman's Hospital Great Yarmouth (NFgyGY011), or the vigorous peasant by Jules Dalou for the Royal Exchange of 1877. The youthful Charity is unlikely to be a portrait of Lady Catherine Boileau (born Elliott), who had married Sir John in 1825 and died June 1862 when she must have been in her late '50s. The fountain which provided for the needs of the drivers and horses arriving at the City along the Newmarket and Ipswich roads was designed by Thomas Jeckyll. The Norfolk Chronicle noted its ‘artistic merit in sculpture statuary and in architecture.’ The builders were William Hubbard of Dereham, responsible for the contemporary work on the tower of St Peter, Ketteringham, also to designs by Jeckyll. The elegant classical fountain with its double canopy was recorded in early nineteenth century photographs, one of which is shown on the website, before its removal in 1965 to ease traffic. The statue was relocated by the City Council to the hospital 3 February 1967 and ownership passed to Charles Church Development when they acquired the site for redevelopment ca. 2002. It was reinstated in front of a specially built pond in 2008. The terracotta Boileau coat of arms from the fountain, attributed by early sources to the local wood carver and sculptor James Minns (1828-1904), is in the Bridewell Museum (included on the website) 

Description (iconographical)

Charity's drapery, like the child's pose, was derived from Jean-Baptiste-Eugène Farochon’s Maternité (now at Coutances), exhibited at the Salon of 1859, the year that Boehm first arrived in Paris. Boehm, however has converted Farochon's mother into a slimmer water nymph. The commission reveals Sir John Boileau's (1794-1869) concern for animal welfare, which has parallels with Anna Sewell's Black Beauty first published in 1877. Boehm's plaster model, which shares the dimensions of the bronze, survives in a private collection, Norfolk. The lower left arm and the toes of the left foot, which push out over the plinth, were restored by Imogen Payne in 1999. 

Photographs

Date taken:  26/1/2008
Date logged:  28/1/2008

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

Date:  26/1/2008

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke

Sources and References

Stocker, M., Royalist and Realist: The Life and Work of Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, New York and London, 1988, 284-286; Weber Soros, S., and Arbuthnott, C., Thomas Jeckyll Architect and Designer 1827-1881, London and New Haven, 2003, 118-9; Chadwick, O., Victorian Miniature, London, 1960; information from Beatrice Ewart, Chairman Hethersett Society. 

Database

Date entered:  29/1/2008

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke