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Home | Corson Collection | Biography | Works | Image Collection | Recent Publications | Correspondence | Forthcoming Events | Links | E-texts | Contact Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841)
Chantrey visited Italy in 1819, perhaps in response to pressure from patrons to attempt ideal, poetic figures, but he continued to specialize in contemporary portraiture. From the early 1820s until his death, Chantrey was the portrait sculptor of choice for wealthy, institutional, or public patrons. His masterpieces of these years include busts of George IV (1822), Robert Southey (1828), Sir Jeffry Wyatville (1837), and Queen Victoria (1838), and statues of James Watt (1820) and Revd Reginald Heber (1828). He was knighted by William IV in 1835 and his popularity remained undimmed until his sudden death in London on 25 November 1841. He bequeathed a legacy to the Royal Academy to support the purchase of British paintings and sculpture and to create a national collection of British art. A victim of the low esteem in which portrait sculpture has traditionally been held, Chantrey long suffered from critical neglect. He is now, however, increasingly recognized outstanding British sculptor of the early nineteenth century and as the creator of lasting images of some of the most important figures in British history.
Chantrey is responsible for three likenesses of Scott, the celebrated 1820 bust, a preliminary pencil sketch, and a statuette modelled as a tentative proposal for Edinburgh's Scott Monument (now at the Lady Lever Art Gallery). Bibliography
Last updated: 16-Jan-2009
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The sculptor Sir Francis Leggatt
Chantrey was born at Norton, Derbyshire, on 7 April
1781.
The
son of
a
tenant farmer
and carpenter, he received a rudimentary education at the village
school. Initially apprenticed to a carver in nearby Sheffield,
he broke his indentures in
1802 to pursue a career as a portrait painter. With encouragement
from the mezzotintist J. R. Smith, he spent the next five years
moving between Sheffield and London, working as a largely self-taught
portraitist and modeller
of busts. He was awarded his first public commission
in 1805, carving a bust of the Revd James Wilkinson, vicar of
Sheffield. This, his first work in marble, won him immediate local
fame. Seeking
perhaps to hone his skills, Chantrey attended the Royal Academy
Schools in 1807 but never registered as a student. At around this
point, Chantrey abandoned painting entirely in order to concentrate
on sculpture. His sole exhibit at the academy in 1808, a bust of Satan,
resulted in a commission to carve plaster busts of four naval heroes,
admirals
Duncan, Howe,
Nelson, and St Vincent, for Alexander Daniel's additions to the
Queen's House. Gradually Chantrey's fame spread in London. In 1809
he was commissioned to carve a bust of George III, for which the
king gave sittings, and in 1810 he exhibited at the Royal Academy
his first bust of a national leader, William Pitt. 
