Sir William Hamo Thornycroft was one of the leaders of the New School of sculpture in England and was consequently a great inspiration to other sculptors and artists of his day.
He was born in London, the son of sculptors Thomas and Mary Thornycroft and entered the Royal Academy in 1869 whilst working with his father. His great admiration for the Elgin Marbles inspired his first visit to Italy in 1871 and the following year saw his work exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time.
From 1882-1914 Thornycroft taught at the R.A. schools and he received many public commissions including the memorial to Gladstone (erected in the Strand), Oliver Cromwell (erected at Westminster), and General Charles Gordon, originally erected in the centre of Trafalgar Square, and unveiled on October 16th 1888 by D. Plunkett, First Commissioner of Works. He was knighted in 1917and won the R.B.S. Gold Medal in 1923, just two years prior to his death. A joint memorial exhibition of his work was held with Francis Derwent Wood (q.v.) at the Royal Academy in 1927.
Amongst Thornycroft's most notable works exhibited is The Mower, which was exhibited life size in bronze at the Royal Academy in 1884 and is now part of the Walker Gallery collection in Liverpool. At its time it was perceived as being a pioneering example of sculpture that didn't represent the rural figure as a hero of labour in the way that maybe his counterparts in France were, but rather an image of youthful beauty.
The Mower was first conceived by Thornycroft when boating down a river, he sketched a glimpse of a young man working in the fields. Several different wax study models for the work were produced of which the earliest was dated 1881. The final model was exhibited in plaster at the Royal Academy in 1884 and in bronze in 1894.
