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Bronze sculpture 'The Hunter' by F N Bose ARSA

Photographer: unknown

Bronze sculpture 'The Hunter' by F N Bose ARSA

Bose himself may have been responsible for the photography however he is known to have had his own portrait taken by the Edinburgh-based commercial…

Bose himself may have been responsible for the photography however he is known to have had his own portrait taken by the Edinburgh-based commercial photographer Drummond Young whilst another Edinburgh photographer Francis Caird Inglis recorded other of Bose's sculptural works and he may have engaged either of them to record this piece.

The piece depicts an athletically-built clean-shaven young man carrying a deer carcass on his back, being Bose's bronze group 'The Hunter' which he exhibited at the RSA Annual Exhibition in 1915 (cat.33). The piece was shown again the following year in London in the 148th Annual Exhibition a the Royal Academy (cat.1834) and was subsequently purchased by the Welsh sculptor Sir William Goscombe John RA. The Maharaja of Baroda apparently saw the piece in Goscombe John's home and commissioned a further cast of it from Bose.

Goscombe John bequeathed his cast alongside a second bronze by Bose, his 'Boy and Crab' (aka 'Boy in Pain') to the National Museum of Wales.

Typical of Bose's work it reveals the influence of the work of Auguste Rodin HRSA in conveying a sense of continuous movement.

Bose would have been able to see Rodin's works first hand at the RSA Annual Exhibitions and when he visited Paris in 1911 actually met the great French sculptor who took an interest in his work.