Statue of George III, Somerset House

The bronze sculptural group you see in the center of the Somerset House courtyard is a tribute to King George the Third, created by the sculptor John Bacon and completed in 1789. It depicts the monarch in Roman-style apparel, standing alongside a reclining figure of Father Thames, the personified god of the river that flows just beyond the walls of this building. The composition is filled with maritime symbols like a rudder and a ship's prow, which were chosen to advertise Britain's identity as a dominant naval power during the eighteenth century. When the King’s wife, Queen Charlotte, first saw the finished monument, she was reportedly unimpressed by its appearance and asked the sculptor why he had made so frightful a figure. Bacon, unfazed by the royal critique, famously replied that art cannot always capture the union of beauty and majesty that nature achieves. The statue stands as a rare survivor from the original decorative program of this neoclassical palace, serving as a permanent anchor in the quadrangle where the Royal Academy of Arts was once housed.