Statue of James II
The statue in 2015
Artist	Peter van Dievoet andLaurens van der Meulen at the workshop ofGrinling Gibbons
Year	1686; 339 years ago (1686)
Type	Statue
Medium	Bronze
Movement	Classicism
Subject	King James II
Location	London,WC2 United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°30′30″N0°07′44″W / 51.5084°N 0.1290°W /51.5084; -0.1290
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Statue of James II in front of National Gallery west wing
Designated	5 February 1970
Reference no.	1217629[1]

Thestatue of James II is a bronze sculpture^[2] located in the front garden of theNational Gallery inTrafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.^[3] Probably inspired by French statues of the same period, it depictsJames II of England as aRoman emperor, wearingRoman armour and alaurel wreath (traditionally awarded to a victorious Roman commander). It originally also depicted him holding abaton. It was produced by the workshop ofGrinling Gibbons. The execution was most likely, according to contemporary accounts,^[4] the work of the Flemish sculptorsPeter van Dievoet fromBrussels andLaurens van der Meulen fromMechlin,^[5] rather than of Gibbons himself.^[6] The statue has been relocated several times since it was first erected in the grounds of the oldPalace of Whitehall in 1686, only two years before James II was deposed.

The statue is executed in bronze and depicts James II as a Roman emperor. He is shown standing in acontrapposto pose and pointing downwards in "great ease of attitude and a certain serenity of air", as Allan Cunningham described it.^[7] It formerly held a baton in its right hand, though this is now missing. The face is said to be an excellent depiction of the king.^[8] Unusually for the time, the sculptor sought a degree of fidelity to original classical styles; James is depicted wearing a laurel wreath on top of short hair, whereas other imperial-style statues of both Charles II and James II depicted the two kings with an anachronistic combination of Roman armour and a 17th-centuryperiwig.^[9]

The statue was probably inspired by similar imperial portrayals ofLouis XIV of France. One in particular, a colossal statue byMartin Desjardins of the French king wearing Roman armour with a laurel wreath and baton, is so similar in type to the figures of Charles II and James II that it may have been their direct inspiration.^[10]

The plinth is inscribed with the legendJACOBUS SECUNDUS/ DEI GRATIA/ ANGLIÆ SCOTIÆ/ FRANCIÆ ET/ HIBERNIÆ/ REX/ FIDEI DEFENSOR/ ANNO M.D.C.LXXXVI,^[11] which translates to: "James II, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. Defender of the Faith. 1686."^[3]

The statue of James II is one of three of the Stuart monarchs commissioned by the royal servantTobias Rustat^[12] from Grinling Gibbons's workshop in the 1670s and '80s, the others being of James's brother and predecessorCharles II:an equestrian statue in Windsor Castle and astanding figure at theRoyal Hospital inChelsea.^[11] The statue of James II was commissioned for the Palace of Whitehall, apparently at the same time as the standing Charles II, and the two works might have been intended aspendant pieces.^[11] It was produced in the workshop ofGrinling Gibbons at a reported cost of £300 (equivalent to about £42,000 at 2014 prices).^[13] While the work was long attributed to Gibbons himself, large-scale sculptures were not his forte. Contemporary accounts attribute it to sculptorsPeter van Dievoet^[14] of Brussels who came to London to cast this statue, andLaurens van der Meulen^[15] of Mechelen.

TheJames II was erected at thePalace of Whitehall on 24 March 1686, as recorded by a contemporary, SirJohn Bramston the Younger.^[11]George Vertue, who found an agreement and a receipt of payment for the work, wrote that it was "modelled & made by Lawrence Vandermeulen (of Brussels) [sic] ... & Devoot^[6] [i.e. Peter Van Dievoet]^[16] (of Mechlin) [sic] who was imployed [sic] by ... Gibbons", and that Thomas Benniere was involved in the casting.^[11] A series of five drawings in theBritish Museum, which might be for either the standingCharles II or theJames II, is attributed variously to Gibbons or toVan Dievoet.^[17][12] Its artistic qualities were praised by J. P. Malcolm in his 1803 history,London Redivivum, in which he wrote:

There is but one fault in the figure, and that is the attitude. The King seems to point with a baton at the earth, to which his eyes are directed; but why? Surely this is an egregious error. However, perhaps the artist may have beencommanded to model the statue thus; and if not, his mistake is more than counter-balanced by the beautiful turns of the muscles, the excellence of the features, and the true folds of the drapery.^[18]

James II's statue has stood in several locations since it was first erected.^[19] It originally stood in the Palace of Whitehall's Pebble Court, where it was installed on New Year's Day, 1686. It was situated behind theBanqueting House and faced the river, a position which attracted much satirical comment after James' flight from London during theGlorious Revolution of 1688; it was said that the statue's location indicated his method of escape.^[7]

It was taken down after the Glorious Revolution but was replaced by order ofWilliam III. In 1898 it was moved to a location in the garden ofGwydyr House. It was taken down four years later to make room for the stands for the coronation ofEdward VII.^[13] It lay on its back amid grass and weeds in a state of total neglect until it was re-erected in 1903 outside theNew Admiralty building.^[7] It was displaced again when theAdmiralty Citadel was built in 1940. During theSecond World War it was put into storage atAldwych tube station.^[11] It was relocated to its present site in 1947.^[19] The statue is listed byHistoric England as a Grade Ilisted building, a status which it was granted in 1970.^[1]

• 
  Study for a statue attributed to Peter van Dievoet^[20][21][12]
• 
  The statue on the grounds of thePrivy Garden of the Palace of Whitehall. Engraving by N. Smith (1791)
• 
  Engraving of the statue of King James II by T. Lester (1816), without a baton
• 
  Engraving of the statue on the cover page ofThe Saturday Magazine, 1833

• George Vertue and Horace Walpole,Anecdotes of painting in England, London, 1765, vol. III, p. 91.
• George Vertue,Note Books, ed. Walpole Society, Oxford, 1930–1947, vol. I, pp. 61, 82, 106; vol. IV, p. 50.
• Antoine-Nicolas Dézallier d'Argenville, de l'Académie Royale des Belles-Lettres de la Rochelle,Vie des fameux sculpteurs depuis la renaissance des arts, avec la description de leurs ouvrages, Paris, chez Debure l'aîné, 1787, tome II, pp. 101–102.
• Katherine Gibson, "The emergence of Grinling Gibbons as a statuary", published inApollo, September 1999.
• Alain Van Dievoet, "Un disciple belge de Grinling Gibbons, le sculpteur Pierre van Dievoet (1661–1729) et son œuvre à Londres et Bruxelles", in:Le Folklore brabançon, March 1980, vol. 225, pp. 65–91 (with description and history).
• John Ingamells,Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714. London:National Portrait Gallery, 2009, p. 130.

• Media related toStatue of James II in Trafalgar Square at Wikimedia Commons

• 1686 establishments in England
• 1686 sculptures
• Art by Peter Van Dievoet
• Bronze sculptures in the City of Westminster
• Grade I listed statues in the City of Westminster
• Cultural depictions of James II of England
• Relocated buildings and structures in the United Kingdom
• Royal monuments in the United Kingdom
• Sculptures of men in the United Kingdom
• Statues of monarchs
• Trafalgar Square

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