SIR WILLIAM HAMO THORNYCROFT, R.A. (1850-1925)
SIR WILLIAM HAMO THORNYCROFT, R.A. (1850-1925)

Sketch for 'The Mower'

Details
SIR WILLIAM HAMO THORNYCROFT, R.A. (1850-1925)
Sketch for 'The Mower'
signed and dated 'HT 1884'
bronze, dark brown patina
8¼ in. (20.8 cm.) high
modelled circa 1884, this cast circa 1884-1900

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Clare Keiller
Clare Keiller

Lot Essay

This composition celebrates the pensive and natural energy in man, and admiration for the human form, which in this respect closely follows in the tradition of Donatello's David and Alfred Gilbert's Perseus. Thornycroft also found inspiration in the paintings of Millet and the sculpture of Meunier, but unlike the works of these artists the present figure is not believed to serve as social commentary, but rather as a reflection of the heroic in the everyday.
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, one of an edition cast in 1884.
The final version of the model was modified from this sketch and shows the scythe with the blade resting on 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).

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