Chantrey

Chantrey, SIR FRANCIS LEGATT, an eminent English sculptor, was born at Jordanthorpe, in Derbyshire, on 7th April 1781 (not 1782, as has been generally said). His father, who was a carpenter, and rented a small farm, died when Chantrey was only twelve years of age, leaving the mother in narrow circumstances. The boy was in 1797 apprenticed for seven years to a carver and gilder in Sheffield called Ramsay. It was in these humble circumstances that Chantrey acquired the rudiments of art. He began to model in clay and to draw portraits and landscapes in pencil. His efforts were encouraged by J. R. Smith, the mezzotint engraver: he acquired some local celebrity as a portrait painter, and in 1802 was enabled to cancel his indentures with Ramsay. Soon afterwards he came to London, and studied for a short time in the schools of the Royal Academy, employing himself also in wood-carving. In 1805 he received his first commission for a marble bust, that of the Rev. J. Wilkinson, for the parish church, Sheffield. This was followed by commissions for colossal busts of admirals for Greenwich Hospital; and having in 1807 married a cousin with some property, his early struggles were over. In 1808 he was successful in the competition for the statue of George III. for Guildhall, and during the rest of his life he was largely employed on works of portraiture. The features of the most celebrated men of his time were transcribed by his chisel, and it was in this class of severely realistic work that he most uniformly excelled; though probably his most widely known statue-group is that of the 'Sleeping Children' in Lichfield Cathedral, a subject—its design has been attributed, in error, to Flaxman—in which the real and the ideal seem to meet and blend. His busts include those of James Watt, Wordsworth, and the two very celebrated heads of Sir W. Scott, which he executed in 1820 and 1828. Among his statues are Sir Joseph Banks (1827), Sir John Malcolm (1837), Francis Horner, William Pitt, George IV., and the Duke of Wellington; while his head of Satan and his 'Plenty' designs for Sheaf House, Sheffield, and his 'Penelope' at Woburn, are examples of his rare treatment of ideal and imaginative subjects. In 1816 Chantrey was elected an Associate, in 1818 a Member of the Royal Academy; and in 1835 he was knighted by William IV. Allan Cunningham, the poet, was his secretary and superintendent of works from 1814 till the date of Chantrey's death, 25th November 1841. The sculptor acquired by the practice of his art a fortune of about £150,000; and bequeathed to the Royal Academy, with liferent to his widow, who died in 1875, a sum yielding about £3000 annually, of which the president was to receive £300 and the secretary £50, and the rest was to be devoted to the purchase of works of art executed in Great Britain. Many national acquisitions have already been made by means of this 'Chantrey Fund.' See John Holland's Memorials of Chantrey (1851).