The Mouse and His Master

I had a few minutes to kill at Waterloo Station last week, so I wandered across to the old Eurostar platforms (now superseded by St Pancras).  There, I came across a large bronze statue of a painter.  You could tell he was a painter, 'cos he had a paintbrush and a palette and a cravat.

So, given where it was, it was pretty obvious - if all was right with the world - who the statue would have to represent.  I was clear about that even before I got close enough to read the inscription.

Terence Tenison Cuneo, OBE, CVO, (1907-1996).  Often known as the Railway Artist, and remembered and best known for his paintings of post-war railways.  However, he also painted other industrial and engineering subjects, and was the official painter for the coronation in 1953. 

Somewhere I have an old Hornby model railway catalogue with one of his paintings reproduced on the cover.  All flaring lights and belching steam, if I remember. And down between the tracks, fleeing from the oncoming train, is a little mouse.

The mouse was Cuneo's trademark from the mid-fifties.  Many of his paintings featured a mouse, either realistic or cartoon.  Often they were quite hard to spot, and finding them can be a little like looking at an early "Where's Wally" cartoon.

So I looked at the statue, hard.  No mouse.  All was no longer right with the world.

I just didn't believe it.

In the end I peered at the statue all over, and eventually walked around the back.  I must have looked quite odd. 

And then, finally, spotted the mouse right at the rear of the plinth, peering out from underneath the artists's discarded book of 'Railway Sketches'.

Which also answers the question I set a few posts back...