Lot Essay
Artemis and Her Hound was modelled in 1879, when Thornycroft, under the influence of his friend, the poet and literary critic, Edmund Gosse, abandoned his work on a half-size statue of Diana to concentrate on this new subject. Thornycroft's model for Artemis was an Italian named Antonia Paria, the wife of a local ice-cream seller, and the model for the greyhound was a stray that Thornycroft had taken in and named Diana. The plaster maquette for the work was completed in 1880 and was exhibited at the Paris Salon (now at Macclesfield Town Hall). The work was greatly praised by Gosse, who enthused about it to the architect Alfred Waterhouse, currently designing Eaton Hall for the Duke of Westminster. The Duke subsequently commissioned a lifesize marble version of Artemis which, between its completion and installation in Cheshire, was exhibited at the Salon of 1882.
Artemis was well received by the general public and critics alike, one such commentator, Miss Helen Zimmern, observing: "The sculptor has given a most delicate and effective originality to the drapery by drawing the slight chiton - which is the only garment Artemis wears - in thin folds over three girdles that are so concealed. In this arrangement the robe, and in the uncovering of the breast, the statue recalls the mode in which the Greeks depicted the Amazons, and in particular Penthesilea, the victress of the victor, Achilles".
Artemis was well received by the general public and critics alike, one such commentator, Miss Helen Zimmern, observing: "The sculptor has given a most delicate and effective originality to the drapery by drawing the slight chiton - which is the only garment Artemis wears - in thin folds over three girdles that are so concealed. In this arrangement the robe, and in the uncovering of the breast, the statue recalls the mode in which the Greeks depicted the Amazons, and in particular Penthesilea, the victress of the victor, Achilles".