Description:

William Hodd McElcheran, RCA (1927-1999), Canadian
THOUGHTFUL BUSINESSMAN, 1995

patinated bronze
signed with initials, dated "95", and numbered "8/9" to base, incised
32 x 11 x 11 in — 81.3 x 27.9 x 27.9 cm

Estimate: $20,000—30,000 CAD

  • Provenance: Private Collection, Alberta
  • Dimensions: 32 x 11 x 11 in — 81.3 x 27.9 x 27.9 cm
  • Medium: patinated bronze
  • Notes: Thoughtful Businessman is part of William McElcheran’s larger body of work, using the businessman as a universal symbol. Author David P. Silcox notes that McElcheran creates an "everyman", with figures that are symbolic rather than individual. Initially amusing, upon reflection they come to evoke deeper sentiments, carrying a sense of irony, as well as a compassionate, understanding view of life. [1]

    In his interview with Dr. Inge Kindeman, conducted in Italy in 1990, the artist elaborates on the figure of the businessman:

    Dr. Inge Kindeman: What role does classical art play in your work?
    W.M.: It's not that I'm trying to copy classical art so much as I'm trying to reflect upon aspirations that haven't quite been killed in people. People still have a desire for beauty, and I use the classical mode to demonstrate what people are missing in their lives. Take my businessman when he reaches for his ideal of beauty: when he thinks how powerful he wants to be he thinks of himself as a Greek god, he doesn't think of himself as Jesus.

    Dr. Inge Kindeman: How did you come to the image of the businessman?
    W.M.: There was this period in my work where I became very deeply involved with Catholicism. During that period, I was using skinny figures to express the thin equals of spirituals - later, the fat businessmen as a corporal expression for loneliness. When I was working with religious sculptures, I was always trying to relate my treatment of the subject matter, particularly the treatment of the passion, to contemporary life. There I had this figure of an Everyman with a blank look on his face expressing a sort of impotence. I was trying to relate this idea of the Passion of Christ to contemporary life: how responsible are we for the sufferings of Christ? I was showing in my Everyman, who developed into my businessman, this grey character, who was witnessing it and even trying to figure out what was happening. But I lost my Catholic faith, and with it a part of my art which was connected with this symbolizing of the spiritual. And so what I'm really doing now is trying to find a classical image. My businessman replaces the classical hero. All the classical artists were dealing with the heroic and how they could find images for this that were larger than life. I, on the other hand, am trying to find my image for the anti-ideal, my anti-hero. So the whole idea of my businessman is that he is exactly that sort of Everyman, the ubiquitous non-hero.

    Dr. Inge Kindeman: What characterizes your businessman in general?
    W.M.: Well, the poor man. His mission in our time is to be part of a larger organization in which he has to be a functioning part. Most of these guys are not in positions of power. So the image of the businessman with his overcoat, his hat and briefcase is like the package that he puts himself in, because he feels that that's the kind of image that he has to project to the world. We don't really know who he is, but I try in my businessmen to give hints of the personality underneath. And in some of the fantasy pieces I come close to kitsch – on purpose to show this wonderfully sentimental world that he has, these lovely girls which flow through his mind. He conforms to this bland thing that he feels is his job, what society expects of him. But inside he has little fantasies which he keeps for himself... but our society does not give him many opportunities to express them.

    Dr. Inge Kindeman: And what role does he play in society?
    W.M.: This man is part of a decision-making process. He is not only a result, but at the same time a protector of the industrial age which is based upon the whole theory of the division of labor. Meanwhile, we are coming to the end of all that. We are really in a post-industrial age, where we have to rethink. Division of labor no longer works too well. We have machines, those wonderful machines, which manage to take labor away. This means that a lot of people are put out of jobs, including my businessmen. But that little guy is exactly the man who sits at the conference table saying: "Well, this is what we're going to do".
    [...]

    Dr. Inge Kindeman: Do you want to change society with your businessman?
    W.M.: I really would like to wake them up through the businessman, because I'd like them to see the danger they're in. I'd like to awaken people to the fact that anybody in a position to decide what kind of building they are going to build for their corporate offices or what kind of product they are going to produce effects the environment. All of these decisions have to do with how our world works.

    Most of the real businessmen are committed to that purely economic thing, committed to what is good for the corporation. These people have tremendous power. I see them as being worried about their own individual security within this huge corporation more than anything else. This demands of them to be conformists - it is amazing how conformist they are…”

    [1] Gerhard Finckh and David P. Silcox, William Mac, Hôcherl-Verlag, Munich, 1991, p. 44
  • Condition: Very good overall condition.

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November 20, 2025 8:00 PM EST
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