I was commissioned by an Australian client to make a sculpture for their yacht which was called Boudicea. My client was an admirer of Thomas Thornycroft’s Boudicea and Her Daughters sculpture on Westminster Bridge near the Houses of Parliament.
As part of my research I got permission from Westminster Council to climb up and photograph the sculpture up close. With no health and safety in place, I ascended the plinth of the Boadicea statue twice and no one questioned me! While I was up there I became fascinated by the whole construction of the piece and decided to use it as a model for smaller replica for my client’s yacht. Someone who saw my finished bronze in the foundry exclaimed, “is this Thornycroft’s maquette for his Boudicea sculpture on Westminster Bridge?”. I went up to the Henry Moore Institute to read Hamo Thornycrofts’ diaries about working on his father’s Boadicea. Each day Hamo describes what he worked on the sculpture for his father. Hamo wrote for instance, ‘worked on left leg of horse’, which I found fascinating to read.
As far as we know, Thornycroft’s maquette for his Boudicea does not exist so it was rather nice to make my sculpture as a homage to the father and son sculptors. I have never copied a sculpture before or after Boadicea but I learnt a great deal from the process and had a lot of fun making it.
When I was photographing Thronycroft’s Boudicea I noticed the sculpture was in a great need of repair and cleaning. I got in touch with the Council about they eventually restored the work.
