'Parting' was Goscombe John's first major success, winning the Royal Academy Gold Medal in 1889, and enabling him to travel to Europe. The subject was set by the Royal Academy committee, and the sculptor interpreted it with the figure of a blind old man holding his dead son across his knees. The interest in surface effects, with contrasting textures of hair and skin, was typical of the New Sculpture style. The figure group reveals the influence of the celebrated sculpture of 'Ugolino and his sons' by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1863.