Sculptural compositions (5). Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson

On Smolenskaya embankment in Moscow, not far from the newly erected building of the British Embassy, ​​there is an unusually beautiful and surprisingly believable sculpture dedicated to Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion Watson, who belong to the number famous heroes literary world.

The grand opening of the monument took place in April 2007 and was dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the date of the first publication of the book "A Study in Scarlet" by Arthur Conan Doyle, who managed to create a story about the famous detective. International charitable public fund"Dialogue of cultures - a single world" proposed a project " folk heroes V sculptural compositions". A monument to famous detectives was erected as part of this project.

This is the only sculpture in the world where the legendary couple of detectives are presented together. The figures of the characters in the works of Conan Doyle are depicted in human growth. Next to Dr. Watson, who is sitting on a bench, stands Sherlock Holmes, holding in his right hand, an integral attribute of his image - a pipe, and politely holding his left behind his back. He appears to be giving a colleague some of his thoughts on a particular investigation.

The erection of the monument was preceded by closed competition among Moscow architects who competed in creating the best sculptural personification of popular literary heroes. A. Orlov became the winner of the competition. According to him, he drew inspiration from the original illustrations by the artist Sidney Paget, who first portrayed Holmes in a hunting hat, and from the images of heroes created by cinematographers Vitaly Solomin and Vasily Livanov

Fans of the detective genre who are fond of reading the works of Conan Doyle and love his characters are proud and admiring the installation of such a monument. He once again reminds them of the exciting events and fascinating moments in the books of the famous author.

Monument to Sherlock Holmes in London (London, United Kingdom) - description, history, location, reviews, photos and video.

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Monuments to literary characters are not uncommon. In the Moscow courtyard at the Patriarch's Ponds, for example, Behemoth and Koroviev are waiting for guests, Elista for some reason was chosen by Ostap Bender, Dr. Aibolit settled in Anapa. It is easy to guess which book hero's statue was installed in September 1999 in the center of London - of course, this is the great detective Sherlock Holmes.

Subway passengers ascending from Baker Street station towards Marylebone Road are greeted by a three-meter gray figure in a long cloak with a cape and the classic English "deer hunter hat" worn by Vasily Livanov in the brilliant film adaptation of Conan Doyle's stories. In his right hand, the criminalist holds a pipe, his eyes are closed, his thin face is thoughtful. Holmes is clearly solving one of his famous puzzles in his mind. Sculptor John Doubleday managed to embody in bronze a vivid image of a crime fighter known throughout the world.

From the statue is a stone's throw from the Sherlock Holmes Museum. All you have to do is turn right, walk a short distance to the intersection with Baker Street, turn right again and walk slowly for three minutes to 221 b.

Practical Information

Address: London, Marylebone Rd, 4.

How to get there: Take the subway to Baker Street Station.

Installed in 2007 in Moscow near the building of the British Embassy in honor of the 120th anniversary of the publication by Arthur Conan Doyle of the first short story about the London detective.

Five Soviet films directed by Igor Maslennikov about Sherlock Holmes, filmed in 1979-1986, deserved love and recognition not only in Russia, but also in England itself. In 2006, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain ordered Vasily Livanov to be awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire for "the most reliable Holmes in world cinema."

There are many monuments to Sherlock Holmes - in Switzerland, Japan, Scotland and, of course, on Baker Street in London. Memorial plaques mark iconic places associated with Watson, such as in Afghanistan, where a fictional character was shot in the arm. Memorial plaques hang in the Criterion bar on Piccadilly, in the chemical laboratory of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where the heroes first met, in the vicinity of the Swiss waterfall in Reichenbach. Since 1990, the address 221B finally appeared on Baker Street, which did not previously exist, which did not interfere with the author's fans for more than a hundred years. deductive method send countless letters to him. Now a museum-apartment has been opened at this address, and the British government has declared the house an architectural monument.

In Russia, the famous pair of Conan Doyle characters has always been the epitome of impeccable, exemplary English style. Their main features - a bright mind, elegant humor, self-irony, aristocracy, incorruptibility, ideal style - formed the reference image of a British gentleman. Historically Russian-English friendship the best way It was formed precisely thanks to mutual cultural interest, and the monument to Watson and Holmes at the British Embassy in Moscow is a symbol of dialogue between the two countries.

Anglo-Russian history

Mutual understanding between Russians and the British over the centuries has been promoted not only literary images and cultural associations, but also the closeness of views on some problems of world politics. Despite the fact that Russia and England often found themselves on opposite sides of the front, their military and state interests often coincided, and as a result, they repeatedly became political and economic allies. Since 1698, when Peter I visited the British Isles, new era diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries. After the trade agreement of 1736, England and Russia fought together in the Seven Years' War. The cooling under Catherine the Great, who was skeptical about the "American campaign" of George III, was replaced by unity in the fight against French Revolution(both England and Russia sent troops to France, unsuccessfully trying to restore the fallen monarchy), and then in the war against Napoleon. All this gave rise to a surge of Anglomania in Russian diplomatic circles and a craze for "all things English" in the high society of St. Petersburg.

Sherlock Holmes entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most popular movie character in the world. More than a hundred films have been made about him. The first was taken by Arthur Marvin in 1900 in America. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scotsman, ship's physician and versatile writer, created the Sherlock Holmes epic from 1887 to 1926. This upset him close attention public to such a frivolous hero. The murder of Sherlock in a fight with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls caused an uproar. According to legend, having received a letter from Queen Victoria, the writer succumbed to persuasion and again revived the hero.

But at the beginning 19th century mutual sympathy was replaced by suspicion again. As soon as Alexander I returned from Europe, where he was honored as the winner of Napoleon, a Russophobic wave broke out in London due to the Russian suppression of the Polish uprising of 1830-31. The famous English call in the Crimean War "We will not give Constantinople to the Russians!" speaks of a gigantic disagreement in the "Eastern question", which in those years became a stumbling block for all of Europe. It seemed that for the British, Russia was becoming a principled adversary. But only a few years have passed, and the common enemy in the face Ottoman Empire, as well as a tour of the Russian Imperial Ballet in London, reconciled the two powers and dispelled the myth of a ruthless barbarian from the East threatening Europe. And the big tour of Nicholas II with his wife Alexandra Feodorovna in Europe in 1896 ended with a visit to Queen Victoria - Alexandra's grandmother. As a result, under the Anglo-Russian agreements of 1907, the powers became allies as part of the Entente military-political bloc, which united them during the First World War.

The aggression of the Hitlerite coalition made the anti-communist Churchill prefer Stalin to Hitler. And in 1945, the Potsdam Conference of the "Big Three" with Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill determined the fate of Europe for many years to come.

Russia and Britain are still the most important players and potential partners on the world stage. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, located opposite the British Embassy, ​​are witnesses to this.

What to do at the monument

1. To make an important decision or find a way out of difficult situation, you need to sit between two detectives and hold on to notebook Watson. You can't touch Sherlock Holmes' smoking pipe - according to the Moscow tradition, this promises nothing but trouble.

2. You can walk along the embassy building and appreciate the intellectual minimalism of the architectural project created under the direction of Richard Burton. The main idea of ​​the monument is the closeness of English and Russian cultures, expressed, for example, in the combination of traditional stone and wood with ecological materials used by British designers in the process of creating interiors. On grand opening building May 17, 2000 was attended by Princess Anne of Great Britain. Of the new building, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “It will not only be a British window into Eastern Europe, but also a Russian window to Britain.”

Englishmen in Russia and about Russia

Until the 16th century, England knew nothing about the Moscow principality - instead of it, geographical maps Europe stretched boundless Tataria. In August 1553, in the bay of St. Nicholas, to the walls of the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery (subsequently, the city of Severodvinsk was founded in its place), the only ship that survived from the English expedition, sent to the Arctic Ocean by King Edward VI, landed. So the British first entered the Russian coast. The captain of the ship Chancellor, brought to Moscow, had a letter from Edward VI in several languages, in which the English monarch asked for permission to trade. Ivan IV found the offer mutually beneficial and gave the go-ahead. The first trading English "Moscow Company", founded in 1555, had huge privileges, curtailed only under Peter I. For the British, John granted in Kitai-Gorod, next to the Kremlin, chambers, on the territory of which only English laws were in force.

The memoirs of the English pioneer Chancellor have been preserved, where he describes the luxury of dinners, a red brick castle with nine churches, where the tsar lives: “Moscow itself is a great city. It seems to me that it will be bigger than London with a settlement, but at the same time it is very wild and stands without any order ... There are no such people, accustomed to a harsh life, anywhere else under the sun, because they are not afraid of any cold. In his notes, the Englishman also pays great attention to the size of the Russian army that struck him.

Ivan the Terrible, having kept his guests for about a year, was imbued with sympathy for England and sent the expedition home with rich gifts and assurances of friendship. A few years later, he caught fire not only with the idea of ​​​​an alliance with a powerful maritime state, but also with love for Elizabeth I. In the process of sophisticated diplomatic negotiations related to matchmaking, England achieved a de facto trade monopoly with Russia at sea, and Elizabeth, having heard about polygamy and waywardness of the Russian monarch, nevertheless eluded moving to the Kremlin.

Russian Anglophiles and Dandies

In the XIX century, Anglomania swept the capitals of Europe, including St. Petersburg and Moscow. From about the 1840s it became fashionable not only to read Walter Scott and Dickens, but also to travel to the British Isles without any business purpose. Upon their return, Counts Pyotr Shuvalov, Mikhail Vorontsov, and the princes Golitsyn laid out regular English parks, lined their estates with colonial British artifacts, and gathered English important people in their salons. After the Nemetskaya Sloboda in Moscow burned down in 1812, Anglican services were held in the house of the famous Anglophile Anna Golitsyna on Tverskaya. In those same years, the youth of the nobility, following Pushkin, loved to surprise secular society, imitating the English dandies Byron and Brummel, and some eccentrics, returning from fashionable London dressed up in extravagant tailcoats and starched ties, turned off their over the knee boots and allowed a special English accent in their speech, portraying from themselves as foreigners, as M. Pylyaev mentions in the book about the Russian aristocracy "Remarkable eccentrics and originals."

Englishmen in Moscow

The first Englishmen, merchants of the Moscow Company, began to settle in Moscow since the time of Ivan the Terrible. Under Alexei Mikhailovich, they settled in the German settlement. Since the Petrine era, a British subject in Russian Empire was no longer uncommon. important event XIX century was the construction in Moscow of the Anglican Cathedral of St. Andrew (1878) in Voznesensky Lane. Already in our time, since the 1990s, Moscow for the British has again become one of the centers of attraction in Eastern Europe. They are brought here by business, art and private life. At the beginning of the 1910s, about 25,000 Britons live in Moscow, of which about 1,000 are students.

The monument to Sherlock Holmes in London must be looked for, of course, on Baker Street. True, not on the street itself, but near the metro station with the same name. However, both Baker Street and the museum-apartment at the legendary address 221-b are also close there.

Find Sherlock Holmes

Getting to the monument, as you understand, is not difficult: you need to take the subway to the Baker Street station (it is located in the first transport zone in London and is connected to five subway lines). Even before leaving the station, you will feel that Sherlock Holmes is somewhere nearby: the profile of the great detective with the invariable pipe in his teeth is found here, if not at every step, then at least quite often. Next, exit the subway onto Marylebone Road, a little to the left - voila, the statue of Sherlock Holmes is in front of you in all its almost three-meter height.

If you decide to find a monument during land travel - look for the intersection of Baker Street and Marylebone Road, the metro station will again become your guide.

Long way home

The monument to Sherlock Holmes in London was installed relatively recently - only in 1999. By that time loved literary hero have already been immortalized in many places - so, back in 1988, a statue of Holmes appeared in Meiringen, Switzerland, not far from the Reichenbach Falls, where, according to the story known to us as “The Last Case of Holmes”, the detective’s decisive fight with Professor Moriarty took place. Sculptures appeared in Japan and Scotland - in the homeland of Conan Doyle, memorial tablets in Sherlockian places both in London and around the world. The museum-apartment of Sherlock Holmes was already opened in 1990 on Baker Street, but he never had a monument to the great detective, if I may say so, at home - in the English capital.

Meanwhile, the idea to erect a monument to Holmes was proposed long ago - the beginning was laid back in 1927 by the famous (including his detectives and their hero - Father Brown) writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton. True, his efforts were not crowned with success. Then the idea was promoted by the London Sherlockians - and already from 1951 - from the very moment of the creation of the London Sherlock Holmes Society. The issue was again actively returned in the 90s. The catch was that the monument was proposed to be erected in the center of Baker Street, and this is a rather busy street and such a move would lead to traffic problems. After a series of long discussions, a compromise was found - and in September 1999, the statue of Sherlock Holmes was solemnly opened near the metro station.

Was there a cloak?

The creation of the monument was funded by the Abbey National building society, which also owns the legendary address “221-b” on Baker Street. The author of the nine-foot bronze sculpture was John Doubleday. By the way, he is also the creator of the already mentioned monument to Sherlock Holmes in Meiringen - so the Swiss and London Holmes can be considered brothers to some extent, especially since there is a certain similarity between them - both in face and in clothes.

The sculptor depicted the London Holmes (Swiss, too, by the way) in the classical form familiar to us: a winged cape, a deerstoker - a cap with two peaks, an invariable pipe with a curved mouthpiece. All these attributes, plus a magnifying glass and an eagle profile, have long been firmly associated exclusively with Sherlock Holmes. Meanwhile, Conan Doyle has no mention of such equipment for a detective anywhere. And in general, at that time, vestments were not for the city: a deer stocker, for example, was worn when hunting deer, or just to go to the countryside (visors at the back and front protected the neck and eyes from bad weather). The same with the cloak: the Inverness cape (sleeveless cloak with a spacious cape), in which the sculptor “dressed” Holmes, if it was used by that, it is unlikely for walking around London - with rare exceptions, this is again clothes for travel and country trips. trips.

However, it is possible to trace where the tradition of dressing Sherlock Holmes in these clothes came from. For example, Sherlockian experts note that in some works, which take place outside the city, Holmes wears either a tight cap or some kind of headdress that covers his ears. Perhaps the deer stocker at that time most suited both of these descriptions, or maybe for another reason - but the artist Sidney Paget, who illustrated Doyle's stories in Strand magazine, depicted the detective in this cap, and since then it is no longer a deer stocker at all, but Sherlock Holmes hat.

If the great detective “owes” a headdress to Paget, then the cape and the curved pipe (and also the phrase “Elementary, Watson!”) ​​were added to the image of the detective by actor William Gillett, who played Holmes at the beginning of the 20th century in the theater and embodied him in one of first screenings. The image was picked up and eventually firmly stuck to Sherlock Holmes. Not least thanks to the cinema - after all, the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the most filmed character in the world. More than two hundred films have been made about him, so it is not surprising that in the end the image in the lionfish and the dearstoker began to be perceived as a classic canon.

Well, the book Holmes, despite all his inherent eccentricity, dressed, judging by the references in the text, quite conservatively - in a suit, a fresh shirt and a frock coat ...

Sherlock Holmes will call

Bronze Holmes with a pipe in his hands looks thoughtfully at the endless stream of people scurrying around him, it seems, around the clock. You won’t be able to take a familiar hugging selfie with the monument - the statue stands on a polished pyramid-shaped pedestal (low, but you still find yourself noticeably lower than the detective). But, if you want, you can… talk to Sherlock Holmes. In 2014, the monument was included in the Talking Statues project, which started that year in London and Manchester. The project at that time included 35 monuments, and they spoke as historical figures, and literary characters, and even ... a cat and a goat.

Wanna hear famous detective? The scheme is simple: there is a QR code on a conspicuous round plate next to the monument, which must be scanned using a smartphone. After that, the bell will ring - Sherlock Holmes is calling you. In the voice of actor Ed Stoppard and with a touch of humor, he will give you some thoughts - for example, about his appearance or Professor Moriarty. The words for Holmes were written by the writer Anthony Horowitz (including the author of the novel about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes “The House of Silk”).

Whether any signs are connected with the Holmes monument in London is difficult to say, but some say that for good luck you can rub the shoe of the great detective. True, which one - right or left - is not specified.

In April 2016, the bronze detective was attached to public speaking: Greenpeace activists put respirators on Sherlock Holmes and a number of London statues (even on the Nelson monument in Trafalgar Square) in protest against air pollution.

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Sherlock Holmes is legendary literary character who received worldwide fame With light hand English writer Arthur Conan Doyle. Most of his works also tell the fascinating adventures of Sherlock Holmes, who was a very famous private detective in the capital of England. It is worth noting that these works are rightfully considered classics of the detective genre, and fans of the character can be found all over the world. It is also important that Sherlock Holmes is listed in the Guinness Book of Records, because he is the most famous and popular movie character in the world. An interesting fact is that the heroes of the works are so realistic that they even wrote letters to them, considering them to be real real personalities. Do not mark such a world famous hero in London it was simply impossible, and in March 1999, a monument to the detective and the detective was erected on Baker Street. It is simply impossible not to recognize him, because a cloak is thrown over the detective's shoulders, and on his head you can see the legendary hat with small fields. It is worth noting that earlier, in the same place, at 221-b Baker Street, a permanent museum-apartment of Sherlock Holmes was opened. It is located in a house built in 1815, which is associated with the action of the work. Now this building has been declared a historical and architectural monument by the British government.

Hotels near the Sherlock Holmes Monument are an opportunity to visit the many sights of London, as well as have a great rest in the delightful green area of ​​Regent's Park. This is a truly picturesque place, which is the personification of the city park. Covering an area of ​​166 hectares, here you can visit the zoo, rent a boat and go on a trip on the lake, visit the Queen Mary garden and breathe in the fragrant countless varieties of roses. There are also playgrounds for children, as well as a modern sports center. It is also interesting that in the park you can see hedgehogs and squirrels.

Hotel guests near the Sherlock Holmes Monument can also go to Madame Tussauds. This world-famous museum has several branches in different cities: from New York to Bangkok. Within the walls of the museum you can see a fantastic collection of wax figures, among which there is a charming Jay Lo, lead singer of Tokio Hotel, famous musicians, actors and politicians. It is here that the oldest collection of the “Cabinet of Horrors” is located, which is dedicated to the victims of the French Revolution.