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Hamo Thornycroft

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Sir
Hamo Thornycroft
RA
William Hamo Thornycroft, 1884
by Theodore Blake Wirgman
Born(1850-03-09)9 March 1850
London, England
Died18 December 1925(1925-12-18) (aged 75)
Oxford, England
OccupationArtist
Known forSculpture

Sir William Hamo Thornycroft RA (9 March 1850 – 18 December 1925) was an English sculptor, responsible for some of London's best-known statues, including the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster.[1][2] He was a keen student of classical sculpture and was one of the youngest artists to be elected to the Royal Academy, in 1882, the same year the bronze cast of Teucer was purchased for the British nation under the auspices of the Chantrey Bequest.

He was a leading figure in the establishment of the New Sculpture movement, which provided a transition between the neoclassical styles of the 19th century and later modernist developments.

Biography

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Early life and education

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Stepping Stones, Kibble Palace, Glasgow

William Hamo Thornycroft was born in London into the Thornycroft family of sculptors. Both his parents, Thomas and Mary, and his grandfather, John, were distinguished sculptors.[3] As a young child, Hamo was sent to live with an uncle on a farm in Cheshire until, aged nine, he began studying at the Modern Free Grammar School in Macclesfield, before in 1863 returning to London as a pupil at the University College School.[4] He subsequently, from 1869, studied at the Royal Academy, where his primary influence was the painter-sculptor Frederic Leighton. While a student, Thornycroft assisted his father, Thomas, on the monumental sculptural group Boadicea and Her Daughters, later installed beside Westminster Bridge in London.[4] At the Royal Academy Schools, Hamo Thornycroft won two medals and obtained his first paid commission for a work, a bust of a Dr. Sharpey.[4]

In 1871, Thornycroft visited Italy and Paris and assisted his parents in creating the Poets' Fountain for Park Lane in London, by making several figures of poets in marble and bronze.[5] The fountain was subsequently destroyed in the Second World War.[5] During the first half of the 1870s he exhibited works on a regular basis at the Royal Academy, showing Fame, the Sharpey bust, a bust of Mrs Mordaunt and a model for an equestrian statue of Lord Mayo.[4] In 1876 Thornycroft won the Gold Medal of the Royal Academy with the statue Warrior Bearing a Wounded Youth.[3][6]

Early career

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Thornycroft created a series of statues in the ideal genre in the late 1870s and early 1880s that sought to reanimate the format of the classical statue.[3] These included Lot's Wife (1878) and Artemis and her Hound (1880 plaster, 1882 marble).[4] In 1880 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy,[6] and produced the Homeric bowman Teucer (1881 plaster, 1882 bronze), and the Mower (1884 plaster, 1894 bronze), arguably the first life-size freestanding statue of a contemporary labourer in 19th-century sculpture.[5][7] Both Artemis and her Hound and Teucer combined classical compositions with a increased sense of naturalism to imply movement and energy.[5] A companion piece to the Mower, the Sower, was exhibited in 1886 at the Royal Academy.[4] When, in 1894, the critic Edmund Gosse coined the term "The New Sculpture", he formulated its early principles from Thornycroft's work.[3]

After 1884, Thornycroft's reputation was secure and he won commissions for a number of major monuments, most notably the innovative General Gordon in Trafalgar Square and since moved to Victoria Embankment Gardens.[5] Other significant works he created included an effigy of Harvey Goodwin, Bishop of Carlisle (1895; Carlisle Cathedral),[8] and the statues of Oliver Cromwell (Westminster), Dean Colet (a bronze group, early Italianate in feeling, outside St Paul's School, formerly in Hammersmith and now in Barnes, London), Alfred the Great (Winchester), the Gladstone Memorial (in the Strand, London) and Mandell Creighton, Bishop of London (bronze, erected in St Paul's Cathedral). Other significant memorials were built in several cities then in the British Empire.[6][9]

Architectural work

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The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) Council commissioned Thornycroft to produce a detailed sculpted frieze for their headquarters at Chartered Accountants' Hall for a cost of £3,000.[10] Thornycroft's frieze, carved between 1889 and 1893, includes a series of figures representing Arts, Sciences, Crafts, Education, Commerce, Manufacture, Agriculture, Mining, Railways, Shipping, India, the Colonies, and Building.[11] The figure of the architect is based on the Hall's architect, John Belcher, and the sculptor on Thornycroft himself. The figure of the solicitor is H. Markby of Markby, Stewart & Co., who acted for ICAEW in its early years.[12]

Later works

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Thornycroft continued to be a central member of the sculptural establishment and the Royal Academy into the 20th century. He was awarded the medal of honour at the 1900 Paris Exhibition,[6] and was knighted in 1917.[9] In 1901, he began a series of small bronze statuettes for the home market while continuing to work on large commissions. His single largest work, the monument to Lord Curzon, was unveiled in Calcutta in 1913.[4]

Thornycroft exhibited The Kiss, a large ideal piece he had worked on for three years, at the Royal Academy in 1916, and received a standing ovation from his fellow artists when it was unveiled. He was awarded the first gold medal bestowed by the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1924, although he had previously, in 1908, declined the offer of the presidency of that body.[4] Thornycroft's last major work was the tomb effigy of Bishop Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs which was shown at the Royal Academy in 1925 and subsequently installed in Coventry Cathedral.[4]

Thornycroft became increasingly resistant to new developments in sculpture, although his work of the early 1880s helped to catalyse sculpture in the United Kingdom towards those new directions. In sum, he provided an important transition between the neoclassical and academic styles of the 19th century and its fin-de-siècle and modernist departures.

Blue plaque, 2a Melbury Road, London

A blue plaque commemorates Thornycroft at 2b Melbury Road, Kensington,[13] his studio designed by his lifelong friend the architect John Belcher, c. 1892.[14][15]

Family

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In addition to his parents, Thornycroft's grandfather John Francis was also a distinguished sculptor. His brother, Sir John Isaac Thornycroft, became a successful naval engineer; their sister, Theresa, was the mother of the poet Siegfried Sassoon; Theresa and sisters Alyce and Helen Thornycroft were artists.

In 1884, Hamo married Agatha Cox (1865–1958), who was fourteen years his junior. At a dinner in 1889, Agatha was introduced to Thomas Hardy, who later described her as "the most beautiful woman in England" and admitted that she was one of the models for the title character in his novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles.[16] Agatha and her husband were interested in the concept of "artistic dress", and a dress worn by her (presumed to be her wedding dress) is held in the costume collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, donated by their daughter, Elfrida Mary Manning, née Thornycroft (1901–1987), who was also his biographer.[4][17]

Selected public works

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1878 to 1889

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Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates 		Date Type Material Dimensions Designation Wikidata Notes

More images 		Lot's Wife Victoria & Albert Museum, London 1878 Statue Marble Previously located in Leighton House.[3][6][18]
Stepping Stones Kibble Palace, Glasgow Botanic Gardens 1878 Sculpture Marble
Teucer Tate 1881 Statue Bronze 44 cm high Several versions exist[6]
Charles Turner (MP) & Charles William Turner Turner Home, Liverpool 1885 Sculpture group on pedestal Marble Grade II [4][19]
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Westminster Abbey, London 1885 Bust Marble [20]

More images 		A Sower Kew Gardens, London 1886 Statue on pedestal Bronze and Portland stone Grade II Q27082922 [21]

More images 		General Gordon Victoria Embankment Gardens, London 1887–88 Statue on pedestal with plaques Bronze and Portland stone 3.1m (statue only) Grade II Q26319159 Relocated from Trafalgar Square[22][23][24][25]

1890 to 1899

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Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates 		Date Type Material Dimensions Designation Wikidata Notes
John Bright Broadfield Park, Rochdale 1891 Statue on pedestal Bronze and stone Grade II Q26651280 [22][26]
Queen Victoria Royal Exchange, London 1891-6 Statue Marble Relocated to Victoria Barracks, Windsor in 1996.[27]

More images 		Peter Denny Dumbarton, Scotland Statue 1898, erected 1902 Statue on pedestal Bronze and granite Category B Q17848328 [28]

More images 		Queen Victoria Francis Farewell Square, Durban, South Africa 1898 Statue on pedestal Marble and stone Q115106431 [29][30]

More images 		Statue of Oliver Cromwell Outside of the Palace of Westminster, London 1899 Statue on pedestal with supporting figure Bronze and Portland stone Grade II Q3497572 [22][23][31]

1900 to 1909

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Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates 		Date Type Material Dimensions Designation Wikidata Notes

More images 		Alfred the Great High Street, Winchester 1901 Statue on pedestal and base Bronze and granite Grade II Q26461216 [22][32][33]

More images 		William Plunket Kildare Street, Dublin 1901 Statue on pedestal Bronze and stone [34]

More images 		Dean John Colet and Two Pupils St Paul's School, London 1902 Sculpture group on pedestal with canopy Bronze and stone Originally installed at the school's previous site in Hammersmith, relocated in 1968.[4][23]

More images 		William Ewart Gladstone George Square, Glasgow 1902 Statue on pedestal with plaque Bronze and granite Category B Q17792886 [4][35]

More images 		Memorial to William Ewart Gladstone The Strand, London 1905 Statue on pedestal with supporting figures Bronze and Portland stone 11m tall Grade II Q27081590 [22][23][36]

More images 		Mandell Creighton St Paul's Cathedral, London 1905 Statue on pedestal Bronze & green marble [37]

More images 		William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong Barras Bridge, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1905–6 Statue with screen wall, steps and relief panels Bronze and stone Grade II Q26586754 [38][22]
Statue of Queen Victoria Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi, Pakistan 1906 Statue on pedestal with supporting figures Marble & bronze Q76544412 Originally erected at Frere Hall on a tall pedestal with bronze figures representing India, Justice & Peace and two lioness, all of which were badly damaged in 1947[39][40]

More images 		Cecil Rhodes Kimberley, South Africa 1907 Equestrian statue on pedestal and steps Bronze and stone Q20972960 [4][41]

More images 		Boer War Memorial St Ann's Square, Manchester 1908 Sculpture group on pedestal with plaques Bronze, granite and marble Grade II Q26546131 [42][43]
Alfred Lord Tennyson Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge 1909 Seated statue on pedestal Stone [4][44]

1910 to 1925

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Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates 		Date Type Material Dimensions Designation Wikidata Notes

More images 		Sir Daniel Dixon, 1st Baronet Belfast City Hall 1910 Statue on pedestal with plaques Bronze and stone Grade A Q17778494 [4][45]

More images 		The Kiss Tate Britain, London 1916 Sculpture group on base Marble 1.7m high [46]

More images 		C. E. H. Tempest-Hicks St Mary the Virgin, Monken Hadley c. 1922 Memorial tablet Marble Q106783020 [4][47]
Statue of Haron Baronian Library garden, Knutsford Unveiled 1922 Statue on pedestal Bronze and stone Statue relocated twice, since 2018 part of the Great War Centenary memorial in Knutsford.[48][49][50][51]

More images 		War memorial George Street, Luton 1922 Statue on cenotaph Bronze and Portland stone Approx. 19m tall Grade II Q26408428 Architect, Sir Reginald Blomfield[52][53]

More images 		Bishop Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs Coventry Cathedral 1925 Chest tomb and effigy Bronze and stone [22]

Other works

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Commerce, former Curzon monument, Kolkata
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Writings

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References

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  1. ^ "The Cromwell Statue at Westminster – Icons of England". 14 March 2009. Archived from the original on 14 March 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  2. ^ Jan Marsh (2016). "Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e David Getsy (2004). Body Doubles: Sculpture in Britain, 1877–1905. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 030010512-6.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Elfrida Manning (1982). Marble & Bronze: The Art and Life of Hamo Thornycroft. London: Trefoil Books. ISBN 978-0-89860-072-8.
  5. ^ a b c d e Antonia Bostrom, ed. (2004). The Encyclopedia of Sculpture Vol III P-Z. Fitzroy Dearbon. ISBN 1579584306.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Marion Harry Alexander Spielmann (1911). "Thornycroft, William Hamo" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 881.
  7. ^ David Getsy (2002). "The Difficult Labor of Hamo Thornycroft's 'Mower', 1884". Sculpture Journal. 7: 53–76.
  8. ^ a b Jacqueline Banerjee (18 July 2014). "Monument to Bishop Harvey Goodwin by Sir W. Hamo Thornycroft, Carlisle Cathedral". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  9. ^ a b Public Domain Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Thornycroft, Sir William Hamo". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 32 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 722.
  10. ^ "Friezes (ornamental bands)". Art & Architecture. The Courtauld Institute of Art. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  11. ^ Liz Pile. "Chartered Accountants' Hall – Analysis – A building of distinction". Accountancy Daily. Croner-i. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  12. ^ Harold Howitt (1966). The History of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 1880–1965 and of its founder Accountancy Bodies 1870–1880: The Growth of a Profession and its Influence on Legislation and Public Affairs. London: Heinemann. p. 206.
  13. ^ "THORNYCROFT, SIR HAMO (1850–1925)". English Heritage. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
  14. ^ "Sir Hamo Thornycroft's studio, 2a Melbury Road, Holland Park, London". RIBApix. Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Collections. 1892. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  15. ^ "The Holland estate: Since 1874, in Survey of London: Volume 37, Northern Kensington". British History Online. F H W Sheppard (London). 1973. pp. 126–150. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  16. ^ Max Egremont (22 May 2014). Siegfried Sassoon: A Biography. Pan Macmillan. p. 635. ISBN 978-1-4472-3478-4.
  17. ^ Robyne Erica Calvert (2012). "Fashioning the artist: artistic dress in Victorian Britain 1848-1900" (PDF). University of Glasgow PhD thesis. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  18. ^ "Statue of Lot's Wife". The Courtauld Gallery. Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art: The Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  19. ^ Historic England. "Turner Memorial Home, Liverpool (1068251)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  20. ^ "Samuel Taylor Coleridge". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  21. ^ Historic England. "The Sower (1262481)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  22. ^ a b c d e f g Jo Darke (1991). The Monument Guide to England and Wales. Macdonald Illustrated. ISBN 0-356-17609-6.
  23. ^ a b c d John Blackwood (1989). London's Immortals. The Complete Outdoor Commemorative Statues. Savoy Press. ISBN 0951429604.
  24. ^ Historic England. "Statue of General Gordon (1066175)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  25. ^ "War Memorials Register: Maj Gen CG Gordon". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  26. ^ Historic England. "Statue of John Bright (1370017)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  27. ^ Philip Ward-Jackson (2003). Public Sculpture of Britain Volume 7: Public Sculpture of the City of London. Liverpool University Press / Public Monuments & Sculpture Association. ISBN 0-85323-977-0.
  28. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Glasgow Road, Peter Denny statue (at Municipal Buildings) (Category B Listed Building) (LB24882)". Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  29. ^ "Statue of Queen Victoria 1899". Yale Center for British Art. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  30. ^ "Queen Victoria Statue". South African Heritage Resources Agency. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  31. ^ Historic England. "Statue of Oliver Cromwell in front of Westminster Hall (1226285)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  32. ^ "Alfred the Great (849–899)". The Victorian Web. 20 August 2009. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  33. ^ Historic England. "Statue of Alfred the Great (1167789)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  34. ^ "Plunket, William Conyngham". Dictionary of Irish Biography. 2009. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  35. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "George Square, William Ewart Gladstone Statue (Category B Listed Building) (LB32695)". Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  36. ^ Historic England. "Statue of WE Gladstone on island in road (1237098)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  37. ^ Jason Edwards, Amy Harris & Greg Sullivan (2021). Monuments of St Paul's Cathedral 1796-1916. Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78551-360-2.
  38. ^ Historic England. "Armstrong Memorial (1299341)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  39. ^ a b c d e f g Mary Ann Steggles & Richard Barnes (2011). British Sculpture in India: New Views & Old Memories. Frontier Publishing. ISBN 9781872914411.
  40. ^ Chance, J.F. (2018). A History Of The Firm Of Chance Brothers & Co. Sheffield: Society of Glass Technology. p. 296. ISBN 9780900682803.
  41. ^ "Cecil John Rhodes on Horse – bronze statue". Solomon Edwardian Guest House. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  42. ^ Historic England. "War Memorial (Boer War) (1254462)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  43. ^ "War Memorials Register: Manchester Regiment South African War – The Last Shot". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  44. ^ "Alfred, Lord Tennyson". TrinityCollegeChapel. Trinity College Cambridge. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  45. ^ "Memorials and Statues". Belfast City Council. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  46. ^ "The Kiss 1916". Tate. 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  47. ^ "War Memorials Register: CEH Tempest-Hicks – St Mary the Virgin". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  48. ^ "Centennial War Memorial unveiled in Knutsford Library gardens". 8 October 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  49. ^ "War Memorials Register: H Baronian". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  50. ^ "War Memorials Register: Knutsford War Memorial Hospital". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  51. ^ "War Memorials Register: Knutsford Great War Centenary". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  52. ^ "War Memorials Register: Borough of Luton War Memorial". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  53. ^ Historic England. "War Memorial (1114644)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  54. ^ Chance, James Frederick (2018). A History of the Firm of Chance Brothers & Co. Sheffield: Society of Glass Technology. p. 246. ISBN 9780900682803.
  55. ^ Diane Bilbey with Marjorie Trusted (2002). British Sculpture 1470 to 2000 A Concise Catalogue of the Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum. V&A Publications. ISBN 1851773959.
  56. ^ "Hamo Thornycroft". National Portrait Gallery. National Portrait Gallery, London. 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016. albumen cabinet card, 1880s
  57. ^ "Sir (William) Hamo Thornycroft ('Men of the Day. No. 533.')". National Portrait Gallery. National Portrait Gallery, London. 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016. published in Vanity Fair 20 February 1892

Further reading

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