The Mower

Artist Hamo Thornycroft (English, 1850 - 1925)

Date1884; cast 1890

MediumBronze

DimensionsOverall: 23 3/8 × 11 3/4 × 6 3/4 inches (59.37 × 29.85 × 17.15 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the Mr. and Mrs. Earl D. Wilberg Fund for European Art, George H. and Elizabeth O. Davis Fund, exchange of the bequests of Helen George Harding and Menefee D. Blackwell, and The Nelson Gallery Foundation (by exchange)

Object number2006.10

Signed"Hamo Thornycroft RA Sc 1884" with repeat signature confirming date of casting "Hamo Thornycroft 1890"

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionA standing man, left hand on hip holding a scythe.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

None.

Gallery Label

The Mower was considered radical when the original life-size plaster model was exhibited in 1884. While examples of the British laboring class exist in painting from the 1850s, Hamo Thornycroft’s bronze is the first representation in British sculpture of a laborer in working clothes.

Thornycroft’s idealized yet humble figure marked a shift away from the classical subjects taken from mythology or ancient history that had been his practice. Limited to an edition of 25 casts, The Mower is now recognized as his most iconic work.

Provenance

Private collection, United Kingdom;

Robert Bowman, Ltd, London, by April 5, 2006;

Purchased from Bowman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, 2006.

Published References

Elfrida Manning, Marble and Bronze: The Art and Life of Hamo Thornycroft (London: Trefoil Books, 1982), 207, as The Mower.

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