Gorilla, Grade II listed marble statue in Crystal Palace Park, London Borough of Bromley, England.
Gorilla is a black marble statue in Crystal Palace Park, in the London Borough of Bromley, showing a resting gorilla on all fours placed on a polished Belgian marble base. The figure stands outdoors within the park grounds, close to the Lower Lake.
The sculpture was made in 1961 by David Wynne, commissioned through an arts patronage program run by the London County Council. The model for the work was Guy, a western lowland gorilla from Cameroon who lived at London Zoo.
The statue honors Guy, a western lowland gorilla who lived at London Zoo for decades and was visited by generations of Londoners. People still come to see it today as a way of remembering an animal that many of them, or their parents, once saw in person.
The statue is near the Lower Lake and a cafe inside the park, so it fits naturally into a walk around the grounds. The marble surface is smooth and touched often by visitors, especially children.
David Wynne spent nine months observing and sketching Guy at the zoo before working on the marble. This long period of study is why the posture of the finished sculpture feels so natural and precise.
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