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Dundee Statue
Only a fortnight after the unveiling in Central Park, New York, another of these seated statues was unveiled in Albert Square, Dundee in the presence of some 25,000 people.
This was the culmination of a campaign dating back several years in which the leading role was played by the Rev. George Gilfillan, compiler of several editions of Burns's works, but a highly controversial figure on account of his interpretation of the poet's life.
The Minute Book of the Dundee Burns Club (1880), discusses the Steell statue in considerable detail and, reading between the lines, we may sense something of the controversy that surrounded this sculpture.
The pose of the limbs has been censured as awkward, but the critics who so write fail to perceive that when a human being's consciousness is entirely absorbed by some high inspiration, the airs and graces of posture are undreamt of... Sir John Steell's insight into poetic idiosyncrasy has prompted the thought that true art consisted in the negligent disposition of the statuesque limbs. Yet how wonderfully subtle is the manner in which the lines of the limbs are blended with the lines of the drapery, in order to produce the necessary amount of light and shade. The highest poetic grace of the statue is found in the rapt expression of the upturned face, which appears instinct with thoughts that burn.
See the other Sir John Steell statues in New York, London and Dunedin.
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