It’s big, it’s bronze, and it’s beautiful. The Texas town of El Paso, a bustling city with a colourful history, is now home to the world’s largest equestrian bronze figure.
The massive statue, which stands nearly 12m tall, is made up of 400 pieces. It consumed nearly 10 tonnes of bronze and requires more than 4.5 tonnes of supporting steel.
The artwork, called “The Equestrian,” portrays Mexican conquistador Don Juan de Onate riding a rearing Andalusian stallion. It was installed at El Paso’s international airport, and is the work of artist John Houser.
Houser has been working on the project for nearly 10 years, when the city first asked him to create a statue of Onate as part of a series of commissions to celebrate the city’s past.
Houser travelled to Spain as part of the commission, to gather historical information that would help in creation of the work.
The enlarging and modelling took a total of eight years. While the $250,000 USD commission from the city required him to produce an artwork bigger than life size, a strong fundraising effort pulled together more than $1.3million USD, enabling the sculpture to be built to its remarkable size.
The events of September 11 saw fundraising stall, but El Paso’s international airport stepped in with $700,000 USD to ensure the project’s completion.
The commission attracted protests from those who hated Onate and what he stood for, so in the later stages the artwork’s name was changed to The Equestrian to reflect the importance of the horse in the development of the West.
In 2006, the pieces of the statue were sent from New Mexico, where they had been created, to the Eagle Bronze Foundry in Lander, Wyoming, for final finishing work, where it was assembled for the first time.
Later, it was moved in five pieces to a hangar at El Paso International Airport. In October last year it was taken to the massive concrete base that had been built to support it, and was assembled. Two cranes were required to haul the parts into place.
It was formally dedicated at a ceremony that took place on April 21.
