DOI issue:
No. 313 (April 1919)
DOI article:Gibson, Frank: The sculpture of Professor James Havard Thomas
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21357#0098
The Sculpture of Professor Havard Thomas
>>J»w;"....."1111 j 'w.-^T-n
"music and dancing" bas-relief panel by j. havard thomas
Professor Thomas until 1886. His work was carried out. These reliefs were the result of
not much noticed, except by artists, until his commissions given by a well-known connoisseur,
statue, A Slave Girl, appeared at Burlington Mr. John Maddocks, of Bradford.
House. This work attracted more general The sculptor at this time was alternating his
notice, and made those who took an interest in imaginative subjects with some remarkable
modern sculpture look with expectation for his portrait-busts. The one of Mrs. C. K. Butler
future productions. But the artist at this time was executed in marble and shown at the New
exiled himself from London, He preferred to Gallery at the same time as that of Mrs. Asher
study his art deeply, and for this purpose lived Wertheimer, which latter, by the munificence
for a time in Southern Italy. Naples, Capri, of Mr. Wertheimer, is also in the Tate Gallery,
and Sorrento were the places he most frequented, Both portraits are sincere attempts at rendering
and where he seriously considered the problems character, and the former possesses a noble
of his art. It was during his sojourn in these realism as well as a sense of style equal to that
places that he altered and developed his theories of the Florentine sculpture of the Quattrocento,
about sculpture. The latter is remarkable for its fine chiselling
From Italy he sent occasional work to the and feeling, for the beauty of flesh, as far as it
Academy, an idyll like the Marianina, a bas- can be rendered in marble,
relief; but for eight years nothing was seen Next came the Lycidas. This was followed by
publicly of his work until there appeared at the the Thyrsis, a life-size statue first modelled in
first exhibition of the International Society, black wax and thus shown at the Royal Academy
held in London in 1898, two of his most impor- Exhibition in 1912. Justly and well placed
tant works which were begun and finished in there, it drew a chorus of praise from the critics,
Italy, the bas-reliefs called Agriculture, and The and also commissions for replicas in bronze were
Loom. A third was contemplated but was never given by the Felton Bequest Trustees for the
'the loom'
82
bas-relief panel by j. havard thomas
>>J»w;"....."1111 j 'w.-^T-n
"music and dancing" bas-relief panel by j. havard thomas
Professor Thomas until 1886. His work was carried out. These reliefs were the result of
not much noticed, except by artists, until his commissions given by a well-known connoisseur,
statue, A Slave Girl, appeared at Burlington Mr. John Maddocks, of Bradford.
House. This work attracted more general The sculptor at this time was alternating his
notice, and made those who took an interest in imaginative subjects with some remarkable
modern sculpture look with expectation for his portrait-busts. The one of Mrs. C. K. Butler
future productions. But the artist at this time was executed in marble and shown at the New
exiled himself from London, He preferred to Gallery at the same time as that of Mrs. Asher
study his art deeply, and for this purpose lived Wertheimer, which latter, by the munificence
for a time in Southern Italy. Naples, Capri, of Mr. Wertheimer, is also in the Tate Gallery,
and Sorrento were the places he most frequented, Both portraits are sincere attempts at rendering
and where he seriously considered the problems character, and the former possesses a noble
of his art. It was during his sojourn in these realism as well as a sense of style equal to that
places that he altered and developed his theories of the Florentine sculpture of the Quattrocento,
about sculpture. The latter is remarkable for its fine chiselling
From Italy he sent occasional work to the and feeling, for the beauty of flesh, as far as it
Academy, an idyll like the Marianina, a bas- can be rendered in marble,
relief; but for eight years nothing was seen Next came the Lycidas. This was followed by
publicly of his work until there appeared at the the Thyrsis, a life-size statue first modelled in
first exhibition of the International Society, black wax and thus shown at the Royal Academy
held in London in 1898, two of his most impor- Exhibition in 1912. Justly and well placed
tant works which were begun and finished in there, it drew a chorus of praise from the critics,
Italy, the bas-reliefs called Agriculture, and The and also commissions for replicas in bronze were
Loom. A third was contemplated but was never given by the Felton Bequest Trustees for the
'the loom'
82
bas-relief panel by j. havard thomas