John Willis Good British, 1845-1879

John Willis Good was the foremost English animalier sculptor of the nineteenth century. His modelling is distinctively crisp and detailed and his subjects are most often specific narratives in contrast to the more romantic themes of his French counterparts. Good specialised in hunting and racing themes and his models display a personal familiarity with these pursuits.  The present  bronzes are of exceptional quality and are certainly extremely rare.  The last pair appeared at auction more than twenty years ago, which suggests that these bronzes were individually commissioned rather than commercially edited.

Good exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1870 to 1879 when his career was tragically cut short by his death at the young age of 34. The majority of the models he exhibited were of equestrian subjects often with narrative titles such as that belonging to a bronze group exhibited in 1875: “Quiet to ride and drive, and has been hunted.” His studio was located off the Fulham Road.

Around 1875 Good was working with the distinguished British silver smith and foundry firm Elkington & Co. The present pair of racing groups is stamped with the foundry’s name and can be dated to this period. These groups are amongst the most elaborate of Willis Good’s narratives as they include four figures and two horses. He was fascinated by the physical affects of the horses’ endeavours and often described them in his bronzes, for example in the exhausted stance of his Tired Hunter (lot 517). He reworked the subject of horses before and after the race in numerous models taking a narrative interest in the contrasts (see also lot 528). In this pair  the horse is tidy and sleek before the race, whilst after the race the dishevelled horse contorts its head and gasps for breath. A similar narrative runs through the figures of the jockeys: the rider winks with cockey optimism before the race and after the race throws his chest out, hands on hips as the groom leads the exhausted horse to the winner's enclosure.

It is this sensitivity to detail and narrative which distinguish Good as one of the finest and most inventive of the animalier sculptors.

RELATED LITERATURE
Payne, pp 406-407, no. H218, illustrated p. 354; Graves, vol. III, London, 1905, p. 264