Green Howards Memorial, Crépon

(click image to enlarge)

Green Howards Memorial, Crépon

James Butler (1931-2022)

Price

£12,500

Signed

Signed, inscribed with title and dated '96 (on stones at rear)

Medium

Bronze

Dimensions

18 ½ x 11 x 13 inches

Exhibited

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, 1996, no 1172, as 'Sketch Model of Soldier For the Green Howards Memorial at Crepon, Normandy';
'James Butler RA Remembered', Chris Beetles Gallery, London, May-June 2023, no 24;
'Chris Beetles Summer Show 2024', Chris Beetles Gallery, London, June-September 2024, no 181

From an edition of twelve

On a black slate base measuring 3/4 x 10 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches

A maquette for an over life-size sculpture commissioned for the Green Howards memorial at Crépon in Normandy, 1996.

'The Regiment was one of only two in the British Army to land two assault battalions on D Day, when CSM San Hollis stormed across an orchard in Crépon in his second action to win the only VC that day. In recognition of this, in October 1996, a bronze statue pf a Green Howard was unveiled in Crépon by King Harald, to commemorate those Green Howards who gave their lives in Normandy and in the Second World War. The imposing statue by James Butler is deeply moving in portraying an exhausted but resolute infantryman resting on a broken wall and reflecting on that day’s historic events.'
(Geoffrey Powell & John Powell, The History of the Green Howards, Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2002, page 259)