Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey

Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey , 1781-1841, English sculptor, famous for his portrait busts and statues. Among his many well-known works are equestrian statues of Wellington and George IV (London); and a statue of George Washington (Statehouse, Boston).

Chantrey, Sir Francis (1781–1841). English sculptor, born in Yorkshire. Although apprenticed to a woodcarver, Chantrey studied intermittently at the Royal Academy Schools, at first intending to be a portrait painter. About 1804, he decided to concentrate on sculpture and his bust of the radical politician John Horne Tooke (1811) made his reputation. He became, after Nollekens, the most successful sculptor of portrait busts in England. His simple and natural sculptures of children, especially The Sleeping Children in Lichfield cathedral, were enormously popular, though now may be considered mawkishly sentimental. In 1817 Chantrey became a Royal Academician and he was knighted in 1837. He bequeathed £105,000 to the Royal Academy, the interest to be used to buy ‘works of Fine Art of the highest merit executed within the shores of Great Britain’. The purchases, which have often caused controversy, are housed in the Tate Gallery (London).

June Cochrane

Chantrey, Sir Francis (b Norton, nr. Sheffield, 7 Apr. 1781; d London, 25 Nov. 1841). English sculptor. Initially he tried to establish himself as a portrait painter, but after about 1805 he painted only occasionally (a self-portrait, c.1810, is in Tate Britain, London). He made his reputation with a bust of the Revd John Horne-Took (Fitzwilliam Mus., Cambridge), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1811, and he succeeded Nollekens as the most successful portrait sculptor in England. His enormous practice also included church monuments and statues; the monument to the Robinson children (1817) in Lichfield Cathedral and the bronze equestrian statue of George IV (1828) in Trafalgar Square are his best-known works in these fields. Although he had studied intermittently at the Royal Academy, Chantrey was essentially self-taught and his work often has an impressive directness, unburdened by academic theory: ‘I hate allegory; it is a clumsy way of telling a story.’ He became extremely wealthy, and besides being very generous during his life he left the bulk of his fortune of £150,000 to the Royal Academy, the interest to be used for the purchase of ‘works of Fine Art of the highest merit executed within the shores of Great Britain’. These are now housed in Tate Britain. See also Cunningham.