Mrs booth
At the beginning of September 2009, after winning an international competition, I was commissioned to make a bronze shell lady 12 feet high and cast in bronze to be sited at the end of The Harbour Arm in Margate’s Old Town. The sculpture is a scaled up version of the tiny shell lady ornaments which are sold in the souvenir shops on Margate sea front.
The bronze is entitled Mrs Booth after the seaside landlady whose house had spectacular views over Margate harbour. Twice widowed, Mrs Booth’s first husband had drowned at sea; when Turner came to Margate to paint, it was with Mrs Booth he chose to stay. They began a love affair in 1833 and lived as Mr and Mrs Booth, with Mrs Booth supporting Turner financially until his death.
Mrs Booth, the sculpture, began life at my studio on Margate High Street. Shells found on the beach were fashioned in clay, and enlarged to the size of dustbin lids before being cast in bronze at a local foundry. The finished shells were assembled like a jigsaw to create the final form.
She was a spectacular sight as she swung from the crane to her plinth on a stormy Margate morning. The unlikely size and setting of the shell lady grants her all the civic respect of a local hero.
The site of Mrs Booth’s former lodgings is now occupied by Margate’s new Turner Contemporary Gallery designed by David Chipperfield Associates. Turner remarked that “the skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe”, often returning to Margate to capture their shifting light in lucid paint. The opportunity for the gallery is to recreate that experience for visitors through contemporary art and the Turners that will be exhibited there.
Mrs Booth stands silhouetted against Chipperfield’s stark white building like a Victorian paper cut-out. She is looking out to the sea and sky beloved of Turner.
