The Mower

Details

Sir Hamo Thornycroft R.A. (1850-1925)
The Mower
signed and dated on the base 'Hamo Thornycroft ARA Sc. 1884' and stamped '12' in several places; signed and dated in ink to the underside 'Hamo Thornycroft/1890' and stamped '12'
bronze, dark-brown/black patina
23¼ in. (59 cm.) high

Literature

M. H. Spielmann, British Sculpture and Sculptors of To-Day, London, 1901, pp. 36-44.
E. Manning, Marble and Bronze, The Art and Life of Hamo Thornycroft, London, 1982, pp. 16, fig. 5 (original plaster), 18, 90, fig. 58 (life-size bronze cast), 92-95.
S. Beattie, The New Sculpture, New Haven and London, 1983, pp. 148, pl. 142 (life-size bronze cast), 149-50, 188-99.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Thornycroft's plaster of The Mower was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1884 and, as testimony to the work's enduring popularity, the life-size bronze version (now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) was shown a decade later. The composition was inspired by a boat trip made by Thornycroft in 1882, when he observed a mower resting on the banks of the Thames. The Italian Orazio Cervi posed for the model the following year. Like Donatello's David and Gilbert's Perseus, The Mower is a celebration of latent physical strength, expressed through stillness and melancholy.

More from Victorian Pictures including The John H. Schaeffer

View All