We are searching out the sculptures in walking distance from Brentford Dock.
Yesterday was a clear and sunny day in Kew Gardens, which was ideal for photographing the dramatic sculpture, ‘The Sower’ by Sir Hamo Thornycroft against a deep blue sky.
It is a dramatic bronze of a farmworker in shirt sleeves, scattering seed from a basket. His muscles ripple and the pose and look on his face is heroic and full of vigor.
It is located, appropriately, in the Grass Garden, surrounded by the splendid array of grasses near the Alpine House. It was cast in 1886 and presented to Kew Gardens by the Royal Academy of Arts.
Sir Hamo Thornycroft (1850-1925) was born in London and his brother was Sir John Isaac Thornycroft a British shipbuilder who founded the Thornycroft shipbuilding company on the river Thames at Chiswick in 1864.
As well as The Sower in Kew Gardens, his works include the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster; the statue of King Alfred the Great at Winchester, the statue of General Gordon on the Victoria Embankment; the chariot-group Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni and her Daughters, on Westminster Bridge.
