Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Sculptor; born 9 March 1850, in London, son of sculptors Thomas and Mary Thornycroft, brother of engineer John Thornycroft (NPG 5876), and uncle of poet Siegfried Sassoon. Studied in parents’ studio and Royal Academy Schools, influenced by Frederic Leighton; exh. RA from 1872; elected ARA 1881, RA 1888; leading figure in the revival of British sculpture, best known for figures of Mower (1885) and Sower (1886) together with memorials to King Alfred, Oliver Cromwell, General Gordon and Lord Curzon; in later life largely occupied with public statues and busts; member Art Workers Guild; knighted 1917; died 18 December 1925 at Oxford.

Physically, he was tall, ‘extremely powerful in frame’ with ‘curly, golden-red’ hair. [1]

Dr Jan Marsh

Referencesback to top

Curtis 1997
Curtis, P., comp. and ed., The Sculpture Business: Documents from the Archive, Leeds, 1997.

Curtis & Friedman 1996
Curtis, P., and Friedman, T., eds, Leeds’ Sculpture Collections Illustrated Concise Catalogue, Centre for the Study of Sculpture, Leeds, 1996.

Feeke et al. 2001
Feeke, S., and others, eds, Close Encounters: The Sculptor’s Studio in the Age of the Camera, exh. cat., Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 2001.

Friedman et al. 1993
Friedman, T., and others, The Alliance of Sculpture and Architecture: Hamo Thornycroft, John Belcher and the Institute of Chartered Accountants Building, Leeds, 1993.

Getsy 2004
Getsy, D.J., Body Doubles: Sculpture in Britain 1877–1905, New Haven and London, 2004.

Gosse 1881
Gosse, E., ‘Hamo Thornycroft ARA’, Magazine of Art, 1881, pp.328–32.

Gould 2004
Gould, V.F., G.F. Watts: The Last Great Victorian, London, 2004.

Harris & Ormond 1976
Harris, E., and R. Ormond, Vanity Fair: An Exhibition of Original Cartoons, NPG, London, 1976.

Jones et al. 1996
Jones, S., and others, Frederic Leighton 1830–1896, exh. cat., Royal Academy, London, 1996.

London 1907–9
Prominent Men of London, Shaftesbury Press, London, 1907–9.

McMaster 2008
McMaster, J., ‘That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch and the Royal Academy’, British Art Journal, Autumn 2008, pp.62–76.

McMaster 2009
McMaster, J., That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch and the Royal Academy, Edmonton, Canada, 2009.

Manning 1982
Manning, E., Marble & Bronze: The Art and Life of Hamo Thornycroft, London, 1982.

Mason 2003
Mason, M., ‘Work, work, work! Hamo Thornycroft and the Makers of Building’, Sculpture Journal, vol.10, 2003, pp.51–66.

Ormond 2010
Ormond, L., Linley Sambourne: Illustrator and Punch Cartoonist, London, 2010.

PCF (Leeds) 2004
Public Catalogue Foundation, Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in West Yorkshire: Leeds, London, 2004.

Robinson [1892]
Robinson, R.W., Members and Associates of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1891. Photographed in their Studios by Ralph W. Robinson of Redhill, n.p., [1892].

Rosenblum, Stevens & Dumas 2000
Rosenblum, R., M. Stevens and A. Dumas, 1900: Art at the Crossroads, exh. cat., Guggenheim Museum, New York and Royal Academy, London, 2000.

Stephens 1884
Stephens, F.G., ed., Artists at Home. Photographed by J.P. Mayall and reproduced in facsimile…, 6 parts, London, 1884.

Stocker 2004d
Stocker, M., ‘Thornycroft, Sir (William) Hamo (1850–1925)’, ODNB, Oxford, 2004; online ed., January 2008.

Swanson 1977
Swanson, V.G., Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema: Painter of the Victorian Vision of the Ancient World, London, 1977.

Thwaite 1984
Thwaite, A., Edmund Gosse: A Literary Landscape 1849–1928, London, 1984.

White 1991
White, A., Hamo Thornycroft & the Martyr General, Leeds, 1991.

[Wood] 1984
[Wood, C., intro.,] A Fraternity of Artists: A Set of Sixty-two Portraits of Late Victorian Artists, by Walker Hodgson, exh. leaflet, Christopher Wood Gallery, London, 1984.