Mother Vérité — a statue billed as the "first-ever postpartum statue to be unveiled in London" — can be found in Marylebone's Portman Square.
Conceived by Frida founder Chelsea Hirschhorn, and created by sculptor Rayvenn Shaleigha D'Clark, the seven-foot-tall bronze figure of a woman cradling a newborn baby in her left arm is modelled on real women, in a bid to "capture every scar, curve, and crease of the postpartum journey".
Before being moved to Portman Square, it was unveiled on the steps of the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, a spot synonymous with polished birth announcements from the likes of Kate Middleton — in stark contrast to the realities of postpartum life, which often involves physical and emotional discomfort. (As Lisa Niven-Phillips opines in Vogue: "I can confidently say that putting on a pair of heels and having my hair blow-dried just hours after [giving birth] would have tipped me into complete meltdown.")
Mother Vérité may strictly be London's first postpartum statue, although it's comfortably predated by Cecile Nobrega's 'Bronze Woman', unveiled outside Stockwell station in 2008, and depicting an African-Caribbean woman holding aloft a baby. Unlike Bronze Woman, Mother Vérité is not a permanent installation; it'll remain in Portman Square until the end of October, when it moves to Art Basel Miami, before returning to London, to go 'on long-term loan with a major institution dedicated to women's health and cultural advancement '.
A woefully low 4% of London's statues are of women, while around double that are of animals. There has, however, been a surge in the representation of women via the medium in more recent times, with statues of people including model Twiggy, scientist Ada Lovelace and former leisure centre worker Joy Battick, being unveiled.
