Physical Energy (sculpture)

Physical Energy is a bronze equestrian statue by the English artist George Frederic Watts.

The original 3.5 ton gesso grosso model (made of plaster mixed with glue size and hemp or tow) is at the Watts Gallery at Compton near Guildford.

In the artist's own words, it is "a symbol of that restless physical impulse to seek the still unachieved in the domain of material things".

Physical Energy was the culmination of Watts's ambition in the field of public sculpture, embodying the artist's belief that access to great art would bring immense benefits to the country at large, Watts conceived Physical Energy as an allegory of human vitality and humanity’s ceaseless struggle for betterment.

It was originally suggested that the statue be erected at the burial place of Cecil Rhodes in the Matopo Hills in Southern Rhodesia.

Due to logistical impracticalities it was instead installed as part of the Rhodes Memorial on Devil's Peak above Groote Schuur near Cape Town, South Africa.

It was delivered to London's Kensington Gardens, in September 1907, and unveiled at a site overlooking the north-west side of the Serpentine.

In 1960, at the unveiling of the Lusaka statue, Godfrey Huggins, 1st Viscount Malvern presented the Queen Mother with a silver replica of Physical Energy cast from a plaster model made by Sydney Harpley.

The Kensington Gardens cast is featured on the covers of some reissues of Coil’s album Horse Rotorvator, captured from a fisheye lens.