The Mower, The Sower, and The Mayor: Thomas Hardy and Hamo Thornycroft, encounters and affinities

Abstract

This article explores the intellectual and creative friendship between Thomas Hardy and Hamo Thornycroft, who met in 1883 when they were engaged upon works that were to define their respective careers. Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) and Thornycroft’s The Mower (1884) testify to the concern of both artists to dignify with the permanence of art fleeting moments of collision between the old world and the new, whilst striving to balance the desire to idealize with the imperatives of the real.