Rush of Green

The Rush of Green in 2015, with One Hyde Park in the background

The Rush of Green, also known as Pan or The Bowater House Group, was the last sculpture completed by Jacob Epstein before his death at his home in Hyde Park Gate on 19 August 1959. The sculpture group includes a long-limbed family – father, mother, son and dog – rushing towards Hyde Park, encouraged by the Greek god Pan playing his pipes. It was cast in bronze posthumously and installed in 1961 on a plinth separating the carriageways of Edinburgh Gate beneath Bowater House. The sculpture was removed when Bowater House was demolished in 2006 and reinstalled near its replacement One Hyde Park in 2010. The sculpture was granted a Grade II listing in January 2016.

The sculpture was commissioned by Harold Samuel in November 1957. He was the chairman of the Land Securities Investment Trust, and intended the statue to be sited beside the company's new office development at Bowater House, on the southern edge of Hyde Park. It was cast in bronze by Morris Singer and installed in April 1961 in the middle of Edinburgh Gate, a road that ran from Knightsbridge underneath the newly built Bowater House to South Carriage Drive. A maquette of the sculpture was exhibited in the foyer of the building.

The sculpture was removed when Bowater House was demolished in 2006 to be replaced by One Hyde Park and reinstalled in 2010 at the entrance to the relocated Edinburgh Gate, some distance to the west, still beside South Carriage Road, accompanied by new 15 metres (49 ft) bronze gates designed by Wendy Ramshaw.

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  The Rush of Green beside Bowater House in 2003

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  New gates by Wendy Ramshaw

See also

• 1959 in art
• Greek mythology in western art and literature

References

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Pan Statue, Royal Parks
• One Hyde Park, Davison Arts Partnership
• Edinburgh Gate SW1, 28 February 2013
• London’s Epstein Sculptures: Part 7: Hyde Park, Spike Magazine, 12 January 2012
• The Pan Statue, Historic England