Statue of Jan Smuts
The statue in 2013
Artist	Jacob Epstein
Medium	Bronze sculpture
Subject	Jan Smuts
Location	London, United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°30′03″N0°07′37″W / 51.50087°N 0.12690°W /51.50087; -0.12690

A life-size bronze statue ofJan Smuts by the British artistJacob Epstein stands on the north side ofParliament Square in London, United Kingdom, between astatue of Lord Palmerston and astatue of David Lloyd George.^[1]

The statue depicts him in his military uniform as afield marshal, leaning forward with his left leg advanced, as if walking forward. The statue stands on a pedestal of granite from South Africa, which bears the inscriptionJAN/ CHRISTIAN/ SMUTS/ 1870–1950.^[2]

The statue had a mixed reception, withRobert Brand calling it "simply ghastly" after attending the unveiling. Bullus and Asprey inThe Statues of London likened Smuts' pose toice skating.^[2]

AfterWinston Churchill won thegeneral election in October 1951, he proposed erecting a statue in Parliament Square as a memorial to Smuts, who had died in September 1950. Churchill retired asprime minister in 1955, and was too ill to perform the unveiling in November 1956; it was unveiled instead by theSpeaker of the House of Commons,William Morrison. The statue became a Grade IIlisted building in 1970.^[3]

Nelson Mandela secretly visited London in the 1960s, and on seeing the statue joked withOliver Tambo that perhaps there would be statues of them replacing it one day.^[2] Though the statue of Smuts remains, astatue of Nelson Mandela was unveiled in Parliament Square in 2007.

• List of sculptures by Jacob Epstein

Wikimedia Commons has media related toStatue of Jan Smuts, Parliament Square, London.

• Jan Christian Smuts – Parliament Square, London, UK at Waymarking
• Statue of Field Marshal Jan Smuts, National Heritage List for England Historic England
• Smuts statue, londonremembers.com
• Parliament Square Garden, london.gov.uk
• The Statues of Parliament Square, Bowl Of Chalk – London Walking Tours, 12 November 2013
• Parliament Square statues, Bob Speel
• Smuts Statue Unveiled 1956, Pathé

• Bronze sculptures in the City of Westminster
• Grade II listed statues in the City of Westminster
• Sculptures of Jan Smuts
• Outdoor sculptures in London
• Parliament Square
• Sculptures by Jacob Epstein
• Sculptures of men in the United Kingdom

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• Articles with short description
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• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• Coordinates on Wikidata
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