CAG.0718 William Hamo Thornycroft, Teucer, c.1900, plaster cast, 195 x 105 x 58 cm. Purchased, 1900.

WORK OF THE WEEK!

Standing tall and poised with (an imaginary) bow and arrow, Teucer (c.1900) cuts an athletic and graceful figure in our Sculpture Galleries.

This is a plaster cast of a bronze sculpture by William Hamo Thornycroft depicting the idealised male physique of an archer. Although his name may not be well known today, Teucer was the cousin of Hector and Paris of Troy, whom he fought against during the Trojan War alongside his half-brother, Ajax.

The bronze version was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1882 and was subsequently purchased for Tate through the Chantrey Bequest. It was initially displayed with this quotation from Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer’s The Iliad:

Since, rallying, from our wall we forced the foe,
Still aimed at Hector have I bent my bow;
Eight forky arrows from this hand have fled,
And eight bold heroes by their points lie dead:
But sure some god denies me to destroy
This fury of field, this dog of Troy.

On 21 July 1900, the Cork Examiner reported that our plaster cast of Teucer had been purchased through the generosity of Irish horticulturist, William Edward Gumbleton (1840-1911). It was noted that the ‘cast will be a great boon to students of the School of Art, the surface anatomy of the human figure being very thoroughly portrayed.’

William Hamo Thornycroft (1850-1925) hailed from a significant family of artists. He assisted his father, Thomas Thornycroft (1815-1885), with the monumental group sculpture Boadicea and Her Daughters, now at Westminster Bridge, London. His mother Mary Thornycroft (1809-1895) and grandfather John Francis (1780-1861) were also noted sculptors.

Knighted in 1917, Thornycroft was a key figure in the ‘New Sculpture’ movement that was concerned with detailed naturalism. His nephew was the celebrated poet Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967).

The Arts House: Conor Tallon chats with curator Michael Waldron about a work from the Collection every Sunday morning on Cork’s 96FM and C103 Cork. You can listen back to this week’s chat here:

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