King Robert of Sicily

I was meeting my daughter for a wander in the West End today so popped into the Botanic Gardens on the way. The gardens are surprisingly unfestive apart from this one poinsettia Xmas tree in the Kibble Palace, perfectly situated in front of my favourite statue in the glasshouse,  ‘King Robert of Sicily’. The marble statue was sculpted by George Henry Paulin (1888-1962) and bought by Glasgow Museums in 1927. The tale of King Robert comes from a poem by H.W. Longfellow. He was an arrogant man who was deposed by an angel, stripped of his robes and forced to assume the role of a jester, with only a monkey as a friend, a beautiful statue nevertheless.