Foster 243

Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquis (1738-1805), Governor-General of Fort William, Bengal, 1786-93 and July to October, 1805. Made 1793-98

Full length figure in Roman costume, face turned to the left. His left hand holds a sheathed sword; the right extends the olive branch of peace. At his feet a cornucopia pours forth an abundance of Indian fruits.

Marble

Inscribed: ‘Marquis Cornwallis K.B. 1798’

Comissioned by the East India Company, 1793.

At the end of Lord Cornwallis’s first period of office as Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief, the Court of Proprietors, after praising his ‘uncommon zeal and ability’, passed a special vote of thanks (23 January, 1793) ‘for the very gallant and important services he had thus rendered to the East India Company’, and resolved that his statue should be placed in the General Court Room in order that ‘his great services may be ever had in remembrance’. Bacon was chosen to carry out the work and the price agreed upon was five hundred guineas. On 14 November 1798 it was resolved ‘that the Statue of Marquess Cornwallis, which is now completed by Mr. Bacon, be placed in the Sale Room, opposite to the Statue of Sir Eyre Coote’ (see F244).

A copy of this statue was made by Bacon for Calcutta and was later placed in the Town Hall; it is now in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta. It was still unfinished at his death and was completed by his second son, John Bacon Junior, whose name appears on the pedestal as sculptor.