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| Claude-Marie Ferrier Amazons and Argonaut (sculpture group by Joseph Engel, on view at the Great Exhibition, London) ca. 1851-52 salted paper print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Joseph Engel Amazons and Argonaut (sculpture group commissioned by Prince Albert, installed at Osborne House) 1846 marble Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri Amazons and Argonaut (sculpture group by Joseph Engel, installed at Osborne House) 1867 albumen print Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Gustav William Henry Mullins Decorative Arrangement at Osborne House (Amazons and Argonaut by Joseph Engel, with Foliage and a Cannon) 1885 albumen print Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Gustav William Henry Mullins Decorative Arrangement at Osborne House (Amazons and Argonaut by Joseph Engel, with a cannon, viewed through archway) 1885 albumen print Royal Collection, Great Britain |
The Arch
Of all living monuments has the fewest
facts attached to it, they slide right off
its surface, no Lincoln lap for them to sit
on and no horse to be astride. Here is what
I know for sure:
Was a gift from one city to another. A city
cannot travel to another city, a city cannot visit
any city but itself, and in its sadness it gives
away a great door in the air. Well
a city cannot except for Paris, who puts
on a hat styled with pigeon wings and walks
through the streets of another city and will not
even see the sights, too full she is of the sights
already. And within her walk her women,
and the women of Paris looking like
they just walked through an Arch...
Or am I mixing it up I think I am
with another famous female statue? Born
in its shadow and shook-foil hot the facts
slid off me also. I and the Arch burned
to the touch. "Don't touch that Arch a boy
we know got third-degree burns from touch-
ing that Arch," says my mother sitting
for her statue. She is metal on a hilltop and
so sad she isn't a Cross. She was long ago
given to us by Ireland. What an underhand
gift for an elsewhere to give, a door
that reminds you you can leave it. She raises
her arm to brush my hair. Oh no female
armpit lovelier than the armpit of the Arch.
– Patricia Lockwood (2012)
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| Victoria, Queen of Great Britain (at age 14) Amazons at War 1833 drawing Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Claude-Marie Ferrier Amazon on Horseback spearing a Tiger (sculpture by August Karl Edward Kiss, on view at the Great Exhibition, London) ca. 1851 salted paper print Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Anonymous Photographer Amazon on Horseback spearing a Tiger (model for sculpture by August Karl Edward Kiss) ca. 1850 photograph National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Anonymous Photographer Amazon on Horseback spearing a Tiger (sculpture by August Karl Edward Kiss, on view at the Great Exhibition, London) ca. 1851-52 salted paper print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| George Baxter Amazon on Horseback spearing a Tiger (sculpture by August Karl Edward Kiss, on view at the Great Exhibition, London) ca. 1851-52 Baxter-Process print Harvard Art Museums |
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| John Absolon View of the Great Exhibition (Amazon on Horseback spearing a Tiger by August Karl Edward Kiss) 1851 watercolor and gouache Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Anonymous Printmaker after John Absolon View of the Great Exhibition (Amazon on Horseback spearing a Tiger by August Karl Edward Kiss) 1851 chromolithograph Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Adolphe Braun Amazon on Horseback spearing a Tiger (sculpture by August Karl Edward Kiss, outside Königlichen Museum, Berlin) ca. 1850-75 stereocard - albumen silver prints Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Lovis Corinth Amazon on Horseback spearing a Tiger (sculpture by August Karl Edward Kiss, outside Altes Museum, Berlin) 1916 lithograph National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |