Sketch for 'The Mower'

The present bronze, pensive and full of the natural energy of the everyday man, closely follows in the tradition of Donatello's David and Alfred Gilbert's Perseus. Thornycroft drew inspiration from the paintings of Millet and the sculpture of Meunier, but unlike the works of these artists, The Mower is not believed to serve as social commentary, but rather as a reflection of the heroic in the mundane. The genesis of the composition lay in a boat trip of 1882, when Thornycroft observed a mower resting on the banks of the Thames. He made study drawings and sketch models in wax and plaster, and the present statuette is a bronze cast of Thornycroft’s sketch of 1882. The final version of the model was further modified from this sketch, rendered with the scythe blade resting upon the ground instead of above his head, and the figure bare-chested. The final version was first exhibited in plaster at the Royal Academy in 1884 to great critical acclaim, from which a later edition of bronze casts measuring 58.5 cm. high were made. In 1894 a unique life-size bronze version was produced, which is now in the collection of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (inv. 4136).