Maquette for 'The Mower'

Details

Sir William Hamo Thornycroft R.A. (1850-1925)
Maquette for 'The Mower'
signed with initials and dated 'H T 1884' on the base, and signed and dated in ink to the underside 'Hamo Thornycroft Nov 24 1903'
bronze, dark-brown patina
7¾ in. (19.7 cm.) high

Provenance

with The Fine Art Society, London.
Private Collection.
Anonymous sale; Christie's London, 4 November 1999, lot 76 (unsold).
with Robert Bowman Ltd., London, 1999.

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. 18, 92-95, 161, fig. 117 (another cast).
S. Beattie, The New Sculpture, New Haven and London, 1983, pp. 149-50, 188-99.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium

Sale room notice

Please note that the provenance stated in the catalogue is incorrect and should read:

Private Collection
with Robert Bowman Ltd., London, 1999.

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