*** 
 
 ',.<. *<-
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 \\
 
 SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY, R.A. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 HIS LIFE, PRACTICE, AND OPINIONS. 
 
 GEORGE JONES, R.A. 
 
 LONDON: 
 EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET.
 
 LONDON'. 
 til KY AND EVANS, PBIXTERS IV II n K till Alt?, .
 
 LADY CHANTREY, 
 
 A. TRIBUTE TO LONG AND UNVARIED FRIENDSHIP, 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 Art 
 Library 
 
 MB 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 -*- C36071 
 
 THESE Notes have been written under the 
 influence of respect and affection. They have 
 been made at various times, and at long 
 intervals, with no other view than to offer a 
 slender record of exalted merit. 
 
 The author apologises for his errors, and 
 begs to acknowledge the kind assistance of 
 Sir Henry Russell, Mr. Leslie, and other 
 friends. 
 
 December, 1849.
 
 SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY. 
 
 SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY was born at Norton, 
 in Derbyshire, not far from Sheffield, in 178# 
 His father cultivated a small property of his own. 
 To his son Francis he wished to give an education 
 suited to his station, and based on the best dic- 
 tates of common sense, which through life the 
 sculptor developed in a most exemplary manner, 
 for whatever may be the opinion of the world as 
 to his merits as an artist, or his accomplishments 
 as a man, all agree in acknowledging his remark- 
 able and undeviating sagacity. Chantrey's father 
 died when he was eight years of age, and his 
 
 B
 
 EAELY PREDILECTIONS. 
 
 mother soon married again, which probably pre- 
 vented an earlier consideration of her son's course 
 of life, and his profession was not determined by 
 his friends until he had reached his sixteenth 
 year, at which period their intention was to place 
 him with a lawyer in Sheffield. 
 
 Chantrey saw in a shop window in that town 
 some carving in wood, which induced him to de- 
 clare his wish to be a carver instead of a solicitor, 
 which was acceded to by his relatives, and he was, 
 in consequence, bound apprentice to Mr. Ramsay, 
 a carver in wood, at Sheffield, where he commenced 
 a career for his future maintenance. At the house 
 of his master, he met Mr. Raphael Smith, the 
 distinguished draftsman in crayon. 
 
 The works of that ingenious artist soon at- 
 tracted the attention of young Francis, who took 
 pleasure in seeing Mr. Smith paint, and rendered 
 himself agreeable and serviceable in useful offices 
 about the artist whilst he was painting, and he
 
 JOURNEY TO IRELAND. 6 
 
 became so impressed with the desire of practising 
 art in a higher class than wood carving, that at 
 the age of twenty- one he gave the whole amount 
 of his wealth, that being fifty pounds, to his 
 master, to induce him to cancel his indentures ; 
 for Chantrey's impatience to commence his course 
 as an artist would not allow him to wait during 
 the six months of his unexpired apprenticeship. 
 With his freedom he began his studies and prac- 
 tice in the liberal arts, and painted the portraits 
 of his friends and others, by which he gained a 
 small sum of money, and having borrowed a 
 little, he ventured to try his fortune in London ; 
 but with sagacious caution he sought employment 
 as an assistant carver in wood, rather than as a 
 painter in a metropolis, where so many able com- 
 petitors were ready to impede, contest, and rival 
 his progress. 
 
 Soon after this time Chantrey went to Ireland, 
 where he suffered so severely from a fever, that 
 
 B 2
 
 4 RESEMBLANCE TO SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 his recovery was doubtful ; and in the progress of 
 the disease he lost his hair, and was bald at his 
 restoration to health, and so he remained during 
 the rest of his life, which, however, rather im- 
 proved than injured the character of his head ; 
 and to those who never saw the sculptor, a por- 
 trait of Shakspeare may supply a resemblance, as 
 the pictures and prints of the immortal poet 
 have often recalled his open countenance to 
 the memory of his friends. Alluding to this 
 supposed likeness he once observed, " Shakspeare 
 might have been the ruin of me, for when I was 
 young, and knew no better, I had been told I 
 was like his picture, and that notion very nearly 
 made me a coxcomb ; " for although Chantrey 
 was confident in his capacity, yet he was quite 
 free from conceit. At his return to England he 
 continued carving, and executed some figures in 
 wood, in the possession of Mr. Hope. During 
 the time that Chantrey was a carver in Avood, he
 
 INTRODUCTION TO MR. ROGERS. O 
 
 saw Mr. Rogers, and received employment from 
 him. At an after period, when the artist 
 had risen to eminence, the poet was reminded 
 by the sculptor of their previous interview ; and 
 the frank, courteous, and friendly recognition of 
 each other cannot be described adequately by 
 any one after having been heard by many in the 
 admirably descriptive language of the author of 
 
 the " Pleasures of Memory/' The intercourse 
 
 -. 
 of these persons, both distinguished for talent 
 
 and conduct, was frequent and friendly; each had 
 confidence in the ability and sincerity of the 
 other, and their opinions and judgment often led 
 the influential in the world, who were inexperi- 
 enced in the arts, into the estimation of their 
 beauties and advantages, and thereby rendered 
 an important benefit to the taste of the country, 
 and the professors in art. 
 
 Chantrey became weary of carving, and recom- 
 menced portrait painting, which he did in most
 
 b CAPABILITIES AS A PAINTER. 
 
 instances gratuitously ; by this means he ob- 
 tained some notice as an artist, and during this 
 time he lived in various places, not being able 
 to establish himself in any permanent residence 
 by his efforts and ability in painting ; for he 
 would have been a good painter, as his works, 
 though few, are remarkable for colour and ex- 
 pression ; the former is striking, from its entire 
 freedom from the too prevailing fault of black- 
 ness, being rich without gaudiness or positive 
 colour, and they show that he was impressed by 
 the tints of Velasquez, Murillo, Jan Stein, and 
 Hogarth ; but it would have been difficult for him 
 to finish very highly, as his sight was imperfect 
 for diminutive objects. However, he continued 
 his studies, and improved his talents in carving 
 and modelling, by making models in clay of the 
 human figure, and then hanging pieces of drapery 
 on them, that he might get a perfect knowledge 
 of the way, and the best way, that it should be
 
 EAELY WORKS. 7 
 
 represented. In this manner he was accustomed 
 to work, and when he had completed one figure 
 or mass of drapery, he pulled it down, and 
 began to model another from drapery differently 
 arranged ; for at that time he never did any thing 
 without nature, or the material being before him. 
 His first imaginative work was the model of the 
 head of Satan, which was exhibited at the Royal 
 Academy in the year 1808. His next work of 
 any consequence was a monument to the memory 
 of the Rev. J. Wilkinson, Vicar of Sheffield, and 
 Prebendary of Ripon; his employers obliged 
 him to complete the work in that town, as they 
 suspected his ability to execute any thing of im- 
 portance in marble. Soon after this his friend 
 Mr. Tappin, the architect, introduced him to 
 Mr. Daniel Alexander, from whom he received an 
 order to execute four colossal busts for Greenwich 
 Hospital, of the Admirals Duncan, Howe, Vin- 
 cent, and Nelson, and this probably was the
 
 SCALE OF REMUNERATION. 
 
 source which produced and forwarded his future 
 employment and success ; for consoling as it 
 may be to the unsuccessful, yet it should be 
 cautionary to those entering the profession to 
 know, that during eight years after the sculptor's 
 commencement he avowed that he did not gain 
 five pounds by his labour as a modeller, and until 
 he executed the bust of Home Tooke in clay, he 
 had but little prospect of success ; yet this single 
 effort obtained for him commissions to the 
 amount of 12,000. At this time he had 80 or 
 100 guineas for a bust, and he continued to work 
 at that rate for three years, when he raised his 
 prices to 120 and 150 guineas, which he main- 
 tained till 1822, when he raised the amount to 
 200 guineas ; and when he modelled the bust of 
 George the Fourth, the King wished him to 
 encrease his price and insisted that the portrait 
 of himself should not be carved by him in 
 marble for a less sum than 300 guineas, what-
 
 MAKRIAGE AND FIRST RESIDENCE. 9 
 
 ever might be his practice with respect to other 
 portraits. 
 
 In 18#& Chantrey married his cousin, Miss 
 Wale; with the lady he received 10,000; this 
 money enabled him to pay off some debts he had 
 contracted, to purchase a house and ground, on 
 which he built two houses, a studio and offices, 
 also to buy marble to proceed in the career he 
 had begun, with a reasonable chance of success. 
 At this period circumstances seemed both favour- 
 able and hazardous, for it was at this time that he 
 was introduced by Mr. Raphael Smith to Home 
 Tooke, then residing at Wimbledon, to which 
 place Chantrey often went, accompanied by his 
 wife, and there he joined in the society of the 
 distinguished for ability and station, and became 
 acquainted with Sir F. Burdett. This intercourse 
 was very useful to the young professional man, 
 for many were his opportunities of seeing the 
 remarkable characters of the day, of profiting by 
 
 B 3
 
 10 SIR FRANCIS BURDETT. 
 
 their conversation, and of exercising his own 
 judgment respecting persons engaged in the great 
 and busy career of the world, both in literature 
 and politics ; and with regard to the latter, he 
 received from his host, during the visits he made 
 to Wimbledon, most salutary counsel, for he 
 advised the young sculptor with earnest friend- 
 ship to avoid even the appearance of disposition 
 towards any party in politics, and in proof of 
 indifference to get some known men of opposite 
 opinions to those held by Home Tooke to sit to 
 him for their portraits. 
 
 These admonitions were carefully cherished 
 and followed by Chantrey, at least during the 
 time that he was dependent on public opinion; 
 and through his life he never gave utterance to 
 any sentiments that could shock a zealot in what- 
 ever might be his favourite opinion or pursuit. 
 This tender respect for the feelings of others is 
 worthy of remark in a man who was peculiarly
 
 MANNERS AND MORALS. 11 
 
 frank and unceremonious, with a jocular spirit 
 and freedom of expression which was not agree- 
 able to all. His rough manner was really 
 an unconscious disguise to the most refined 
 and almost Utopian notions with respect to 
 character and conduct ; he expected the most 
 rigorous attention to honour in an artist, with 
 the most profound respect for truth, both pro- 
 fessional and social; he also expected every ac- 
 complishment that time, opportunity, or ability, 
 could facilitate or achieve. Chantrey believed 
 that the mind and the morals are improved by 
 the contemplation of beautiful objects ; he valued 
 everything for its intrinsic and rational import- 
 ance, and almost underrated mere embellish- 
 ments ; simplicity was the characteristic of the 
 man and of his work ; he deemed every adventi- 
 tious aid an error and deviation from the purity 
 that should be sought for in the human form, 
 and in historic composition.
 
 12 DISLIKE OF CONTROVERSY. 
 
 It would be difficult to overrate Chantrey's 
 elevated feelings with respect to the completion 
 of that character which in this country is deno- 
 minated a gentleman; he gave due respect to 
 rank, and willingly acknowledged its precedence, 
 hut his devotion was to those by whom human 
 intellect is cultivated for the promotion of virtue 
 and general benevolence, and also to those 
 engaged in the investigation of nature, and in 
 the illustration of the wonders and beauties of 
 creation. He cautiously and sometimes humor- 
 ously avoided debates upon all subjects of con- 
 troversy ; and to show his readiness to get rid 
 of implication in any discussion, the following 
 anecdote is a fair example. Chantrey dining 
 with a large party where a royal personage, fond 
 of being thought free in more than political 
 opinions, was talking in his jocose tone of the 
 religious principles entertained by various men, 
 and of the different sects into which they were
 
 HOENE TOOKE. 13 
 
 divided, his eye happening to catch that of 
 Chantrey, he said, "What do you think about 
 all this, Mr. Chantrey? and of what sect shall 
 we call you ? " " Why, sir," said Chantrey, 
 " when I lived in the north, my friends used to 
 call me Derbyshire ; " which occasioned a laugh, 
 and terminated the discussion. 
 
 For the advantages he received from Home 
 Tooke, his feeling of gratitude continued to the 
 end of his life. About a year previous to Home 
 Tooke's death, he desired Chantrey to procure for 
 him a large black marble slab to place over his 
 grave, which he intended should be in his garden 
 at Wimbledon. This commission Chantrey exe- 
 cuted, and went with Mrs. Chantrey to dine with 
 Tooke on the day that it was forwarded to the 
 dwelling of the latter. On the sculptor's arrival, 
 his host merrily exclaimed, "Well, Chantrey, 
 now that you have sent my tombstone, I shall be 
 sure to live a year longer," which was actually
 
 14 STOTHARD, R.A. 
 
 the case. The marble was placed in the garden 
 to await the termination of the earthly career of 
 its owner, and Chantrey's sensibility made him 
 regret that Home Tooke's will was not com- 
 pletely complied with, for whether prudently or 
 imprudently, his feeling of duty to a friend 
 was not to be shaken by conditions or circum- 
 stances. 
 
 In 1812 Mr. Stothard, the Academician, an 
 artist distinguished for simplicity and beauty of 
 style in his designs, introduced Chantrey to Mr. 
 Johns, of Hafod, who entrusted to him the exe- 
 cution of a very large monument to the memory 
 of his daughter, which monument could not be 
 exhibited at the Royal Academy on account of 
 its size, but appeared in an exhibition at Spring 
 Gardens. This work established the character of 
 the artist for ability ; and in that year he obtained 
 a commission from the City of London to execute 
 a statue in marble of George the Third, for the
 
 FURTHER COMMISSIONS. 15 
 
 Council Chamber at Guildhall; which is a good 
 type of the whole-length statues he subsequently 
 produced with such eminent skill in grandeur 
 of design and boldness of execution. The late 
 Sir William Curtis was chairman of the com- 
 mittee for erecting this statue, and was 
 friendly to Chantrey in consequence of the 
 sculptor's plain and unpretending manner. The 
 Committee thought his responsibility so doubt- 
 ful, that they obliged him to procure two 
 sureties for its erection, and these sureties were 
 Mr. Alexander and Mr. Sloane, who bound 
 themselves in responsibility for 600 before the 
 City would issue any money for the progress 
 of the work ; however, Sir W. Curtis, with the 
 good feeling which prompted him to aid aspiring 
 and assiduous merit, told the sculptor that in 
 case he could not find such sureties for the 
 completion of the work, that his countenance 
 and conduct were sufficient guarantees to
 
 16 VISIT TO PARIS. 
 
 him, and that he, Sir W. Curtis, would be 
 responsible. 
 
 Soon after the peace of Amiens he went to 
 Paris with Mr. Dennis, but of this journey he 
 has left no document nor relative observations. 
 When he revisited that capital in 1815 in com- 
 pany with his wife, Mr. Stothard, and Mr. Alex- 
 ander, he gave much attention to the works 
 which then graced the Louvre ; those of Raphael 
 gave him the most satisfaction, from the grandeur 
 of the outline, the fulness of the parts, the pathos 
 and force of the whole. Titian excited his ad- 
 miration for his colour and chiaroscuro, and 
 in particular, " The Entombment," which he 
 always spoke of as a pre-eminent work, yet 
 not so excelling as to disparage the subjects 
 of "Christ at Emmaus," and the "Deriding of 
 the Saviour " by the same hand ; if works were 
 not of first-rate quality he gave them little 
 attention.
 
 MONUMENT OF THE TWO CHILDREN. 17 
 
 From this period Chantrey's progress was steady 
 and successful, and his busts and monumental 
 works all tended to augment his reputation. 
 Amongst his portraits may be named the bust of 
 Lady Gertrude Sloane ; Professor Playfair ; the 
 bust of the King ; that of J. "Watt ; the Marquis 
 of Anglesea ; Sir Joseph Banks ; Earl St. Vincent, 
 and others. 
 
 In 1817 he produced the monument of the two 
 children now in Lichfield Cathedral, which was 
 exhibited at the Royal Academy in Somerset 
 House, where it had a distinguished place ; this 
 able production attracted the attention and ex- 
 acted the admiration of all persons, whether mere 
 spectators alive to natural feelings, or the more 
 cultivated in taste and practised in art ; and such 
 was the impression on the public, that the 
 sculptor was raised to the highest class of merit 
 in his profession. The following letter from the 
 learned and accomplished Lord Grenville is a
 
 18 LETTER FROM LORD GRENVILLE. 
 
 proof of the attention and admiration this piece 
 of sculpture excited : 
 
 Charles Street, May 1, 1827. 
 
 " Qualem virgineo demessum pollice florem 
 Seu mollis violae, seu languentis hyacinth!; 
 Cui neque fulgor adhuc, nee dum sua forma recessit; 
 Non jam mater alit tellua, viresque ministrat." 
 
 EID. xi. 68. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 The above are the lines I mentioned to 
 you this morning; I have always considered 
 them as among the most beautiful in Virgil, but 
 I know not whether even they are not surpassed 
 in my judgment by their graphical illustration 
 in that admirable work which I again saw this 
 morning, and, as I always see it, with increased 
 delight. This is no compliment, but the real 
 expression of my feelings. 
 
 I looked into Dryden for his translation of the 
 above verses, and was mortified to see that it is
 
 ANECDOTE OP CRITICISM. 19 
 
 among the very worst parts of that extremely 
 unequal work. 
 
 Believe me ever, dear Sir, 
 
 Most truly and sincerely 
 Your obedient humble servant, 
 
 GRENVILLE. 
 
 This work was carefully attended to in all its 
 parts ; and a friend of Chantrey's being at Lich- 
 field Cathedral, and looking with others at the 
 monument, heard a spectator observe, " How ad- 
 mirably the mattress on which the children are 
 lying is represented," but made no comment on 
 the figures. When Chantrey was told of this 
 remark, he observed, " that he who said so was a 
 sensible honest man, for he spoke of that which 
 he understood, and of nothing else." In the 
 following year, 1818, he confirmed and secured 
 the respect of all lovers of the tender and the 
 beautiful in representative art, by his small
 
 20 ASSOCIATE AND ACADEMICIAN. 
 
 statue of Lady Louisa Russell, the beauty of 
 which made every parent covet portraits of their 
 offspring hy the hand of an artist so capable of 
 transmitting to posterity a cherished recollection 
 of infantile loveliness. Academic honours also 
 attended the demonstration of such ability, and 
 he was elected an Associate, and an Academician 
 as soon after as the custom of the Royal Academy 
 permits. 
 
 The commission to execute the President Blair's 
 statue for Edinburgh, was the source of Chan- 
 trey's acquaintance with his friend Mr. Macono- 
 chie (now Lord Meadowbank), who was chairman 
 of the committee for that work, and whose zeal 
 and confidence in Chantrey's capability served 
 him in the metropolis of the North. This statue 
 is a very beautiful example of portrait sculpture, 
 and is worthy of any country or period of art. 
 Lord Melville's statue was also executed by him 
 for Edinburgh, but it is of a heavier and less
 
 CHARACTER OF HIS WORKS. 21 
 
 agreeable character than his other works. Chan- 
 trey's monuments and monumental statues were 
 always touching and replete with sentiment, 
 whilst his statues of children went to the heart of 
 every mother, and delighted every parent. He 
 was accustomed to laugh at what he called the 
 classic style, though no one came so near to it as 
 himself; for his works are free from every ex- 
 traneous ornament or decoration, and he rejected 
 everything that called the attention from the 
 simple dignity of the subject represented. He 
 objected to modern warriors in the Roman 
 cuirass, and statesmen with bare arms and legs, 
 yet he did not fail to develop the noblest forms 
 through his drapery. 
 
 Chantrey soon had several commissions for 
 works in bronze ; and, although he always dis- 
 liked and contemned that class of statuary, yet, 
 f as it became his duty to follow the wish of his 
 patrons, he intended to employ some of the great
 
 22 PUBLIC STATUES. 
 
 founders in brass of the Metropolis to cast his 
 figures; but as he could not succeed in that 
 respect as he desired, he determined to render 
 his work as perfect as possible, and built a large 
 foundry in Eccleston Place, which was conve- 
 niently near to his residence. The equestrian 
 statue of Sir Thomas Munro, now at Madras, 
 which excites the wonder of every Indian, and 
 the esteem of those more advanced in taste for 
 art, the statue of George the Fourth in Trafalgar 
 Square, and that of the Duke of Wellington in 
 front of the Royal Exchange, were founded in 
 the new building. He thought that in these 
 statues he would endeavour, if it were possible, to 
 take a position for the horse which had not been 
 adopted by former artists ; and the simplest, and 
 certainly the most reasonable presented itself, 
 namely, that of standing: in this intention he 
 was encouraged by Lord Egremont and others. 
 Before he commenced these equestrian statues,
 
 VISIT TO ITALY. 23 
 
 he sought every information he could as to what 
 had already been done and what might be done 
 of a novel character; he searched and examined 
 all the casts and prints of figures on horseback, 
 and seemed more struck by the equestrian 
 statue by Verrocchio,* which he had seen when 
 at Venice, from the spirited character of the 
 rider, which is unlike any other : and if he had 
 lived to execute any more statues of this class, 
 he would, if consistent with the subject, have 
 attempted something of the kind. 
 
 In 1819 he went to Italy, in company with 
 J. Jackson, R. A., and his early friend Mr. Read, 
 and united business with pleasure in a most 
 sensible way ; for by a visit to Carrara, he 
 secured marble of the finest quality, and his 
 
 * " II cavallo ha molto energia nel suo movimento, e senza esser 
 punto esagerato, mostra totalmente d'avanzare nel passo che sem- 
 bra voler scendere dal piedestallo. Nessun cavallo che posa su 
 tre jambe avendone elevata una sola, espresse mai con altrettanta 
 giustezza il suo movimento, comme quello del Verrocchio." 
 
 CICOGNARA, lib. vi., cap. 6, vol. 3.
 
 24 CAREAEA MA.BBLE QUARRIES. 
 
 sagacious liberality was rewarded by having the 
 choicest blocks reserved for his use. An amus- 
 ing occurrence took place when he first visited 
 the quarries ; for, although he was expected there, 
 he went without announcing himself otherwise 
 than as a purchaser. He desired to be shown 
 specimens of marble ; he was taken to various 
 places, and many inferior samples were shown to 
 him, all of which he rejected ; when, either recol- 
 lecting or having indulged himself long enough 
 with the dissimulation of the Italians, he avowed 
 who he was ; and in a briefer space than he could 
 calculate, he was hurried to places where most 
 beautiful portions of the choicest marble had been 
 already selected for his approval. Yet it must 
 not be supposed that the mercantile in any way 
 superseded or interfered with the feelings of the 
 artist, for he gave great attention to all the 
 sculpture and -all the paintings he saw whilst in 
 Italy ; and it is to be lamented that he did not
 
 ST. PETER'S THE VATICAN. 25 
 
 commit to paper his opinions, so that few can be 
 known except by the recollection of his friends. 
 At Venice he was so much struck by the works 
 of Titian and Tintoretto, that he wrote to a 
 painter in England, in whose opinion he had 
 much confidence, to ask him what he thought of 
 these masters, when he obtained for answer, 
 " That Titian was the most beautiful painter, but 
 that Tintoretto was the greater man :" he avowed 
 the like to be his opinion, as well as that of 
 Jackson, the Academician. 
 
 Chantrey's notes in a sketch-book inform us 
 that he arrived with his party at Rome, on the 
 13th of October, 1819, and engaged apartments 
 at the Hotel de Londres, consisting of five bed- 
 rooms, a dining-room, and a sitting-room. On 
 the ensuing day, he went to St. Peter's and the 
 Vatican, with the intention of taking merely 
 a cursory view, for which he thought an hour or 
 two might be sufficient; but his interest was
 
 SSd THE LAOCOON THE APOLLO. 
 
 excited, and he remained there till late in the 
 clay. It was not easy to get Chantrey to speak 
 of the collection of antique figures in the Vati- 
 can ; for, excepting general approbation of the 
 " Laocoon " and the " Apollo," little could be 
 gained from him with respect to his opinion ; 
 but he looked curiously, and with assiduity, into 
 many things that were unheeded by others ; and 
 he often pointed out simple beauties which no 
 other eye seemed to observe. He might say with 
 Cicero, " In minimis rebus ssepe res magnas 
 vidi." Probably he found so much of the sculp- 
 ture had been the work of restoration, and so 
 much of a doubtful character, that he did not 
 like to hazard a remark, particularly as he was 
 always unwilling to disparage any works, if they 
 gave pleasure to the owners or to the public. 
 He did not think very highly of the busts ; his 
 continued practice in that branch of the art 
 rendered it almost impossible that his judgment
 
 HESEMBLANCE TO SOCRATES. 27 
 
 respecting them should not be elicited. Amongst 
 these busts there is a head of Socrates, to which 
 Chantrey bore considerable resemblance, although 
 the marble has a beard which conceals the mouth, 
 and that feature of the English sculptor was the 
 best in his face, and before he sunk into ill 
 health it was of the most perfect form and beau- 
 tiful expression. If the countenance had some 
 similitude, so had the mind of the philosopher 
 and the sculptor, for they were guided alike 
 by strong reason and rigid investigation ; both 
 were slow to determine, and required the most 
 accurate evidence for decision : yet Chantrey was 
 tender and sensitive as a child, charitable without 
 limit, and so devoted in his friendship, that his loss 
 is irreparable to those he cherished and esteemed. 
 Few as Chantrey' s notes were on Rome, there 
 is one stating, that on the 1 5th he sketched the 
 view from the steps of the Piazza d'Espagna. 
 He was fond of landscape, and successful in its 
 
 c2
 
 28 INTERVIEW AVITII THOEVALDSEN. 
 
 representation; Lady Chantrey has many inter- 
 esting volumes of sketches made by her husband 
 during his journey through Italy and other 
 places, all ably executed. At the Capitol he 
 remarks " that the busts are numerous, and 
 most of them very bad ; there are not any statues 
 worthy of notice, excepting The Gladiator and 
 Antinous, and about eight or ten that are in a 
 small room, and were at Paris in 1815." 
 
 Of the pictures, he says, " They are neither 
 numerous nor good; Guercino's great picture of 
 The Entombment of Sta. Petronella is spotty 
 in its effect." On the 16th he called on Thor- 
 valdsen, for whose works he had a great respect. 
 He has left no account of his intercourse with 
 the great sculptors of Rome, yet that it was 
 of the most friendly and intimate character is 
 known by his conversation ; and he brought to 
 England a fine portrait of Canova. Chautrey's 
 communication with Canova seems to have been
 
 INTIMACY WITH CANOVA. 29 
 
 more frequent and familiar than with Thorvald- 
 sen, which, as far as art is concerned, is remark- 
 able, for the English sculptor's style is much 
 more like Thorvaldsen's than that of his great 
 Italian contemporary. But Canova was in the 
 world of fashion, and Chantrey fond of society, 
 which may account for his greater intimacy with 
 the Italian; possibly also from correspondence 
 before their personal acquaintance; as Chantrey 
 had previously determined to bring from Rome a 
 good portrait of Canova, and for that purpose 
 induced his friend Jackson, the eminent portrait 
 painter, to accompany him to that city. It 
 is to be regretted that the same able hand did 
 not paint a picture of Thorvaldsen, to recal to 
 the British public the sculptor of " La Notte." 
 Chantrey gave the preference to the " Hebe " by 
 that artist to the " Hebe " by Canova. The 
 simplicity and beauty of the " Mercury " and 
 " La Frode Smascherata/' with the bas-relief
 
 30 ESTIMATE OF CANOVA. 
 
 called " La Linea della Vita Humana/' executed 
 for Lord Lucan by the Dane, received from 
 Chantrey the commendation they deserved; in 
 the lighter works, such as the " Danzetrici " and 
 others, Canova might claim the superiority for 
 taste and elegance, though probably they are 
 too theatrical. Chantrey estimated Canova' s 
 works highly, and acknowledged they had grace 
 and dignity; but still thought them liable to 
 the accusation of depending too much upon ex- 
 treme ornament : with respect to the deco- 
 ration of metal and colour, his opinion was in 
 unison with that which has been well stated by 
 the author of the " Diary of an Invalid." * 
 
 Chantrey never liked to draw comparisons, 
 from a generous feeling, and to avoid anything 
 invidious among contemporaries. A touching tes- 
 timony of friendship was evinced by the English 
 
 * " There is a trickery and quackery in the finishing of Canova's 
 statues, which is below the dignity of a sculptor. The marble is 
 not left in its natural state, but it must be stained and polished
 
 ESTIMATE OP WORKS OF ART. 31 
 
 and Roman sculptor changing cloaks at the de- 
 parture of the former for England. 
 
 Chantrey's estimate of the works of art in Italy 
 was of a sensible character, not influenced by 
 prejudice in favour of any style, but by a desire 
 to appreciate the works justly, and by their com- 
 pleteness in all respects. The well known and 
 often described specimens of ancient sculpture 
 found in him a ready admirer ; but he was not 
 prepared to go the length of travellers in Italy 
 with respect to the ruins and antiquities of Rome; 
 he selected and intensely admired a few; and they 
 were admired by him for their perfection not from 
 association of ideas or from historical or classical 
 reminiscences they were admired solely on their 
 merit as works of art. The greater number of the 
 ancient columns in the capital of the world had 
 
 to aid the effect. The other sculptors laugh at this ; and well 
 they may for these adventitious graces soon fade away, and are 
 beside the purpose of sculpture, whose end was and is to 
 represent form alone." Page 144.
 
 32 THE PANTHEON, ETC. 
 
 no effect upon him; but he spoke of, and felt 
 deeply, the beauty of proportion in the three 
 remaining columns of Jupiter Stator, and others 
 of similar merit. 
 
 The Pantheon within and without gave him 
 great pleasure, particularly the interior, which he 
 thought as noble in invention as in execution ; the 
 open roof coincided with his notion of simplicity. 
 The Portico of Octavia, now the Fish Market, 
 and the Portico of Antoninus, now part of the 
 Custom House, gave him entire satisfaction ; the 
 Theatre of Pompey, the Colosseum, the Cloaca, and 
 a few others, for their massiveness and grandeur ; 
 at the same time he was never beguiled into a 
 superlative estimation of all the edifices in Rome 
 admired by some modern travellers; for when 
 the Corso was designated "a street of beautiful 
 palaces," he fairly inquired as to the architectural 
 merits of those buildings, and though they might 
 be imposing if the street were wide enough to
 
 WORKS OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 33 
 
 afford them effect, yet, as examples of art, lie 
 thought them far from estimable. The only 
 edifices of that class that would excite much atten- 
 tion are the Farnese Palace and the Chancelry. 
 
 The villas in the neighbourhood he thought 
 elegant, and proved that variety in build- 
 ing, if under the guidance of good sense and 
 propriety, tends much to the beauty of a 
 country. 
 
 Chantrey spoke but little of the merits of 
 Michael Angelo and Raphael in public ; to his 
 artist friends his opinions were frequently given. 
 Of the works of Michael Angelo, he conversed 
 with those artists to whom the great style 
 was the object of pursuit, for he was accustomed 
 to say, very fairly, that the works of that stupen- 
 dous genius could not be appreciated by others, 
 and that it was unfair to expect any one to judge 
 of a language that they had not studied and could 
 not understand ; but his high opinion in favour 
 
 c3
 
 34 " THE LAST JUDGMENT." 
 
 of the Prophets and Sybils, as well as " The 
 Last Judgment," could not be surpassed. The 
 simplicity with which the latter complex subject 
 is treated, astonished and delighted him : the 
 story so well told ; the large groups so beautiful 
 and complete in themselves, contributing to, 
 without interrupting any part of the whole, gave 
 him the highest respect for the power of the 
 great artist ; and these qualities united with the 
 forcible and careful drawing, the massy yet 
 elegant forms replete with strength, activity, and 
 energy, aided in effect by the small expressive 
 heads and extremities, tending to increase the 
 appearance of robust bodies without diminishing 
 their intellectual character. 
 
 The English sculptor liked the paintings of 
 Michael Angelo better than his sculpture; the 
 " Moses " at Rome tends to the extravagant ; 
 but Michael Angelo's errors are of so grand a 
 character, that the world has been content to
 
 WORKS IN THE MEDICI CHAPEL. 35 
 
 consider them as beauties. However, he held 
 the unfinished " Madonna" at Florence to be a 
 work of wonderful promise, and spoke of this 
 great master with unbounded enthusiasm ; and 
 if he had not early learned the preponderating 
 beauty of the Elgin marbles, the great Italian 
 would have been the example of his choice. 
 He thought more highly of the works in the 
 Medici Chapel at Florence than most of his 
 brethren ; the grand invention of the tombs, the 
 individual figures in their expression, attitude, and 
 form, left his critical acumen nothing to suggest 
 or object to, which is as remarkable as it is con- 
 clusive with respect to the merits of those great 
 works, for Chan trey was ever, and under all cir- 
 cumstances, such a lover of simplicity, that most 
 persons would conclude that the energy displayed 
 by Michael Angelo would pass without due appre- 
 ciation from the author of the children at Lichfield, 
 the Bedford infant, and the Jordan monument.
 
 36 VIEWS OP ART. 
 
 Chantrey's journey through Italy seems to 
 have been in furtherance of his desire to learn 
 what to avoid rather than what to adopt. * His 
 view of his own art was of so pure a character 
 that it was of necessity very limited, but it was 
 always grand : few and uninterrupted lines, large 
 and unbroken forms, the lights and shadows 
 massive and few ; everything he did told, and he 
 never estimated labour that did not speak forcibly 
 to the eye and the intellect. 
 
 Although Chantrey's opinion of Michael Angelo 
 was high, yet he did not consider the sculptor 
 and painter simple enough for entire imitation ; 
 he looked with more rational pleasure on the 
 works of Raphael, and although he did not think 
 him so powerful as his great rival, he thought 
 
 * * Doctus ingeniosissimse antiquitatis Imitator, ut vitia sollicite 
 declinat, ita virtutis studiose consectatur ; neque solum virtutes 
 eorum, quos in exemplar sibi assumpsit, intelligere debet, verum 
 etiam vitia, quandoquidem summi judicii est in alienis operibus 
 ea notare, in propriis vitare." JUNIUS DE PICT. VET. c. III. 6.
 
 WORKS OP RAPHAEL. 37 
 
 him more within the reach of public estimation, 
 and often spoke of their respective beauties ; he 
 knew well all the Stanze, and his judgment was 
 at times developed when he was induced to 
 speak with reference to their composition, colour, 
 and chiaroscuro. He wondered, and was silent 
 when he heard the works of Raphael's prede- 
 cessors spoken of with a preference to the more 
 mature style of that master, and felt how little 
 art was likely to advance, if Michael Angelo, 
 Raphael, and Leonardo, had lived in vain ; 
 for, however meritorious the truth, purity, 
 sweetness, and occasional gracefulness of the 
 earlier masters, yet their merits may be compared 
 to the tenderness of a child opposed to the 
 masculine vigour of the adult. 
 
 The dry style may be accurate and true, but it 
 can never produce a natural combination that will 
 give form its real and developed perfection ; 
 at the same time, in Giotto, John of Fiesole,
 
 38 GIOTTO GHIBERTI. 
 
 Masaccio, and others, the rudiments of beauty are 
 to be found ; and in one master a sudden maturity 
 was evinced which left nothing but magnitude 
 to be desired. That master was Ghiberti, who 
 worked with a painter's and a sculptor's skill, 
 producing form, grace, beauty, simplicity, com- 
 position, and effect ; and, although his style may 
 be too florid for the art of relief, yet the com- 
 mendation of Buonarotti proves his estimation of 
 the precious doors at Florence, which he declared 
 to be worthy of being the gates of Paradise, and, 
 if they are too like pictures to be consistent 
 with the simplicity of sculpture, let it be re- 
 membered that Ghiberti commenced his career as 
 a painter. 
 
 It is also agreeable to know that these works 
 were so much esteemed by the contemporaries of 
 the sculptor, that, when the designs of Brunal- 
 leschi, Donatello, and Ghiberti, were sent in 
 competition for decorating the doors, the two
 
 GENIUS OF GHIBERTI. 39 
 
 former instantly avowed that the preference 
 ought to be given to Ghiberti ; this generosity 
 is as worthy of imitation as the beauties of these 
 masters, and it may be consoling to the student 
 to see that the works of Donatello, Luca della 
 Robbia, and Ghiberti, marked out a path, which 
 was carried forward by Michael Angelo and 
 Raphael, and which they have left for farther 
 progress. 
 
 Chantrey disapproved of the introduction of so 
 much matter as these alti-rilievi by Ghiberti con- 
 tain, yet their individual beauties were strongly 
 retained in his mind, and his opinions on the 
 various subjects introduced on the panels were 
 nearly as follow. He thought the composition of 
 " The Creation " to be of the most difficult cha- 
 racter, as combining several subjects and periods 
 of time ; probably the figure of the Divinity 
 in the birth of Eve is too near, and partly 
 hidden by the Angels in the portion which
 
 40 " DEATH OP ABEL." 
 
 represents the creation of man ; the gracefulness 
 of the figures, the drawing, and the drapery, 
 may satisfy a taste formed on works of the best 
 period. 
 
 In " The Death of Abel " every object is simple, 
 natural, and graceful, united with the extreme 
 vigour of the figure in action ; the three 
 figures on the spectator's right hand might have 
 formed a less perpendicular line, one being 
 placed immediately above the other, though 
 in perspective. But as the subjects alluded to 
 are distinct, and in separate compositions, the 
 preceding observation probably should have no 
 weight. 
 
 " The Deluge/' or rather, its termination, is 
 admirably displayed in the assembled family of 
 Noah in the centre of the bas-relief with the 
 birds and animals around. 
 
 "The Sacrifice" is beautiful and complete, 
 whilst, on the other side, " The Exposure of
 
 "VISIT OF THE ANGELS TO ABRAHAM/' 41 
 
 Noah " is expressed with all the sensibility that 
 delicate and pure feeling could suggest. 
 
 The " Visit of the Angels to Abraham " is 
 perfect, and doubtless gave rise to the most beau- 
 tiful of Raphael's compositions, for the same 
 subject treated by the latter is too similar not to 
 remind one of this exquisite invention. The 
 taste displayed in the draperies has few parallels, 
 and the whole panel is disposed of in a happy 
 arrangement of consecutive subjects. The dra- 
 peries in the story of " Passing the Jordan " are 
 admirable, and there is not an ungraceful figure 
 in the composition, but each might have, and 
 has served for a model in the best time of 
 art. " Moses receiving the Law " is replete 
 with good forms, attitudes, and fine draperies, 
 in which may be found the simplicity of Giotto, 
 with the cultivation of Raphael ; and in the 
 angels, and the male and female figures in 
 the foreground, may be traced the examples
 
 42 "ISAAC BLESSING JACOB." 
 
 which led to works that receive the admiration 
 of the world. 
 
 " Isaac blessing Jacob " is beautiful in all its 
 detached groups, and well embodied as a whole ; 
 the forms are all good, and there is not an objec- 
 tionable figure in the whole compartment. 
 
 In the panel containing the subject from the 
 history of Joseph there are many figures that 
 Raphael has made use of in his cartoons, and they 
 are figures that require no addition of taste, but 
 only a better relative position, which has been felt 
 and accomplished by the follower of Ghiberti; 
 the old man resting on his staff, the figure dic- 
 tating, the female carrying a load, are dignified 
 and graceful, uniting the simplicity of the earliest 
 art with the perfection resulting from observation 
 and discriminating selection. 
 
 "David and Goliath." This is probably the least 
 estimable of those wonderful works as regards 
 composition and elegant forms, yet the figure of
 
 "JOSEPH'S BRETHREN/' 43 
 
 the youthful shepherd is admirable, the arms are 
 beautiful in design and execution, and the figures 
 looking on the vanquished giant are infinitely 
 expressive. 
 
 The panel which is adorned with some of the 
 acts of Solomon is full of elegant figures and 
 draperies, which, to an artist's eye, may direct to 
 even higher things than have been accomplished. 
 Many of the figures have either been imitated by 
 Raphael, or that great master's conceptions and 
 those of his predecessor were cast nearly in the 
 same mould. 
 
 In the history of Joseph's Brethren, the groups 
 are admirable ; that in which the cup is found in 
 Benjamin's sack leaves nothing to desire; the 
 grace, expression, and combination of the figures 
 seem perfect, and the innocence of the accused 
 child is positive in the representation. On the 
 opposite side, the woman carrying the bundle on 
 her head, with a child by her side, combined
 
 44 "MOSES ON MOUNT SINAI." 
 
 with a single back figure, and other attendants 
 facing the spectator, constitute a beautiful and 
 natural composition. 
 
 " Moses on Mount Sinai " is very grand ; the 
 great receiver of the Decalogue is grandly treated, 
 and the multitude at the base of the mountain 
 formed of fine and expressive groups : that on the 
 right of the panel is particularly striking from the 
 gracefulness of the figures ; a female with a child 
 is beautifully composed, with the simplicity of the 
 most unpretending masters, and the grandeur 
 which nature always developes when in perfec- 
 tion, and judiciously selected. The next figure, a 
 woman, is very fine and dignified. 
 
 But to return to painting : Chantrey admired 
 the " St. Jerome," by Domenichino ; the simplicity 
 of composition, the sobriety of the whole work, 
 accorded with his notions of excellence ; he would 
 have preferred a saint more spiritual in character, 
 and more expressive of higher qualities, for, how-
 
 THE "ST. JEROME." 45 
 
 ever well the painting of the saint may be in 
 execution, he disliked the expression of the head, 
 which he thought ought to have been of the 
 most elevated character, the moment being that 
 of beatification ; consequently, he looked for a 
 radiant confidence and superhuman reliance in 
 the countenance, which might be expected in such 
 spiritual exaltation : instead of which, the hand 
 of a great artist has condescended to depict the 
 mere indication of disease and feebleness, which 
 it might be well to display in the human body, 
 but not in parts where mental ecstasy might be 
 developed. To the lion in the corner he objected 
 as injurious to the sentiment of the work. 
 
 He was a good judge of composition, and 
 esteemed this effort of the master, as much as he 
 was inclined to disparage the " St. Sebastian " at 
 the Santa Maria degli Angeli, and the " Rosario" 
 of Bologna, on account of their opposite qualities. 
 
 The church of San Pietro, in Montorio. once
 
 46 "THE TRANSFIGURATION." 
 
 contained "The Transfiguration/' by Raphael, 
 now in the collection of the Vatican. Chantrey 
 thought of " The Transfiguration " as all artists 
 think, but would observe he did not expect the 
 uninitiated to participate in admiration of merit 
 they did not understand, particularly as the 
 picture is liable to the objection of representing 
 two events, which occurred at different times. 
 If any refinements in composition were sug- 
 gested, such as obviating the continued or pro- 
 longed line of two elevated arms, he was in the 
 habit of observing that the sublime unity of the 
 whole ought to supersede such trifling errors, if 
 errors they be ; yet he always felt that the public 
 ought not to be censured by artists if they did 
 not estimate sufficiently works that gradually 
 grow on practised and experienced men, for the 
 perception of such merits increases in proportion 
 as the artist endeavours to imitate them. 
 
 Chantrey was struck with a picture painted in
 
 SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO. 47 
 
 oil on the plaster by Sebastian del Piombo, after 
 Michael Angelo's design ; it represents the 
 scourging of Christ ; it is painted in a semicircle 
 or niche, and consequently difficult to remove, or 
 in all probability a picture of this extraordinary 
 merit would have been taken with " The Trans- 
 figuration" by the French. Painting this picture 
 with oil-colour on stone seems to have been an 
 experiment by Sebastian, which has not succeeded 
 as far as the pigment, vehicle, and foundation are 
 concerned; but it proves, like the works by 
 Raphael in the Hall of Constantine, that these 
 great artists were not satisfied with the effect of, 
 or the materials used in, fresco painting. 
 
 On the 17th, Chantrey visited the Vatican, 
 and gave great consideration to the paintings, 
 though his notes are by no means copious on 
 either the subjects therein, or their execution ; 
 but as he was to dine that day with Sir 
 Thomas Lawrence in the Quirinal Palace, he
 
 48 ESTIMATE OF RAPHAEI/S WORKS. 
 
 may probably have bestowed more attention, 
 thinking the conversation might be on the merits 
 of Raphael. 
 
 He concurred in the following opinions of the 
 works of that great master, including the Car- 
 toons in England, rather than the tapestry in the 
 Vatican. The prison scene in the Stanza of 
 " The Liberation of Peter " is like a Rembrandt 
 in effect; the angel conducting Peter is grand, 
 solemn, and admirably suited to the subject. 
 The guards are defective in form and arrange- 
 ment, offering unpleasant lines, which perhaps 
 give wildness to their terror ; but are not the only 
 characteristics of alarm that could be chosen, and 
 they disturb the dignity of this beautiful work. 
 
 " The Parnassus " must be examined for 
 the individual figures and some of the groups. 
 Few will be found to admire the Apollo in this 
 picture, and the whole has less of interest than 
 any other of the Stanze.
 
 THE " HELIODORUS." 49 
 
 To* the sculptor's eye "The Miracle of Bol- 
 sena" appeared spotty, yet he delighted in the 
 ' simplicity of the Pope ; and the priest, also, 
 with the attendants at the base of the picture, 
 below the Pope. On the opposite side the figures 
 are probably too airy to be consistent with the 
 whole subject, though they are individually full of 
 beauty, and the whole has the character of a 
 Venetian picture. 
 
 "The Dispute on the Sacrament" is a most 
 difficult and admirable composition; the figures 
 are designed with excellent skill. Almost every 
 position taken separately is fit for a statue, 
 yet they compose into exquisite groups. Some 
 standing figures, that have the character of por- 
 traiture, are not quite so elegant. 
 
 The " Heliodorus " in the action and ex- 
 pression of the principal figures is admirable. 
 Some objection may possibly be made to the 
 group on the opposite side and next to the
 
 50 "THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS." 
 
 Pope; the beauty and dignity portrayecl in 
 Julius and his supporters, can alone excuse the 
 anachronism. 
 
 The Stanza of " Attila " is full of energy and 
 fine colour, with all the dignity intended to be 
 conveyed to the leading characters in the drama. 
 The two soldiers in the centre of the fore- 
 ground appear as if introduced after the ori- 
 ginal design had been made, owing probably to 
 the artist's detecting some barrenness in the 
 composition. , 
 
 " The School of Athens " is replete with beau- 
 tiful figures; it is admirably though theatrically 
 arranged ; but the architecture is contrasted in a 
 manner to harmonise with the groups, and to 
 constitute a complete whole. Some of the in- 
 dividuals represented are amongst the finest 
 examples of form and drapery. In a work so 
 distinguished for excellence it is almost an 
 offence to remark that the group observing
 
 "INCENDIO DEL BORGO." 51 
 
 the mathematical demonstration might be im- 
 proved. 
 
 The " Incendio del Borgo " has in it but little 
 of Raphael's work; though the design may be 
 entirely his, yet the figures dropping from the 
 walls have been so re-painted that they have no 
 character of originality, and but little beauty. 
 The female figure in the centre of the picture 
 has no claim to the grace that always flowed from 
 the pencil of the great Italian. Chantrey 
 believed that all which has been done may be 
 exceeded when genius and ability are equal to 
 the task; for, as Raphael has surpassed the 
 lay-figure art of most of his predecessors, so 
 no reason exists why Raphael should not be 
 surpassed. The sculptor acknowledged the 
 approach to perfection in the Cartoons now 
 in England, and often commented on their 
 excellences. 
 
 " The Miraculous Draught of Fishes " he 
 
 D2
 
 52 "THE BEAUTIFUL GATE." 
 
 admired for the extreme simplicity and natural 
 action of the figures, combined with the graceful 
 composition of the group. Raphael did not 
 think, like many painters, that to be natural and 
 true is enough ; he sought and obtained that 
 which nature often does and constantly can do, 
 which is to produce truth, ease, action, and 
 beauty, in complete union. When any one made 
 the oft-repeated observation on the smallness of 
 the boats for such a weight, he always quoted 
 Fuseli, " Why, that adds to the miracle." 
 
 " The Beautiful Gate of the Temple " is a very 
 extraordinary work, from its novelty and the 
 difficulty of treating the subject in so natural 
 yet so interesting a manner; the success has 
 been nearly complete, and might have been quite 
 so, but for the back of the naked boy in the 
 foreground ; he suffers in contrast with the 
 beautiful child carrying the doves. 
 
 " The Sacrifice " is most intelligently con-
 
 "PAUL PREACHING AT ATHENS/' 53 
 
 ceived, until we arrive at the Saint who is not 
 tearing his vestments, but merely baring his 
 breast, as it were for inspection; but it is 
 very difficult to say how such an action should 
 be represented without rendering it liable to 
 other interpretations. The persons engaged 
 in the sacrifice are admirable; the incredulous 
 man examining the leg of the restored suppliant 
 is complained of as being too puerile and insig- 
 nificant, but the mass of figures approaching 
 the insulated apostles is admirably managed, 
 and was a favourite mode of composition of 
 Raphael, as well as of Masaccio: the two 
 children at the altar are beautiful. 
 
 In the " Saint Paul preaching at Athens," the 
 figure of the preacher will be found to be too short, 
 and the figures near, and behind him, rather too 
 large; the drapery of the nearest figure in the 
 foreground is not so perfect as most examples 
 from the hand of Raphael. The figures on the
 
 54 " CHRIST DELIVERING THE KEYS." 
 
 second ground seem complete in every respect, 
 and the whole scene has a surprising air of 
 truth. 
 
 " Christ delivering the Keys to Peter " is 
 probably the most difficult subject of the seven 
 Cartoons in England, and the artist has succeeded 
 to an extent, that objection would almost become 
 a wanton vice. The separation of the great Actor 
 from the attendant group, the humble attitude 
 of the distinguished apostle, the affection and 
 admiration of the remainder, may satisfy the 
 critical artist and the pious Christian. But 
 merely to show that these opinions result from 
 close attention to the work, a more graceful line 
 than that which terminates the composition, by 
 the figure in red, might be chosen, and the artist 
 himself probably felt this objection, and was 
 therefore induced to introduce the dark boat in 
 such a situation, to conduct the composition 
 to the end of the picture.
 
 "ELYMAS THE SORCERER/' 55 
 
 With respect to the Cartoon " of the Death of 
 Ananias," opinions are united, for the way in 
 which the story is told seems perfect ; the calm- 
 ness of the apostles, the surprise of the uninspired 
 spectators, the dying figure, and the sordid in- 
 terest of Sapphira, are all developed so forcibly, 
 that if there be small portions and forms that 
 might be improved, it would be hazardous to 
 point them out, as they may really contribute 
 in some indirect way to the effect of the 
 whole. 
 
 " Elymas the Sorcerer " alone remains to be 
 noticed; Elymas is a striking figure, and those 
 behind him are of fine and exalted character ; 
 the apostle is deficient in dignity, and the pro- 
 consul is of inferior character; the person on his 
 left projecting a naked arm is awkward; the 
 remainder is feeble, and the smallness of the 
 architecture is detrimental to the effect. 
 
 Such was the opinion of Chantrey respecting
 
 56 THE QUIRINAL PALACE. 
 
 Raphael's works, as well as the recollection of 
 various conversations can supply. 
 
 On the 18th of October, Chantrey accompanied 
 Lady Davy to the Quirinal Palace, to see the 
 pictures of the Pope and Cardinal Gonsalvi, by 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence ; he was much gratified, 
 and always spoke with much energy in praise 
 of those masterly productions. The whole treat- 
 ment of the portrait of the Pope he considered 
 admirable for its grandeur, simplicity, expression, 
 and careful execution. The latter was so stu- 
 diously attended to, that Lawrence bestowed 
 some time in making separate studies from the 
 Laocoon in chalk, to introduce into that picture, 
 and these drawings are now in the possession 
 of Mr. Jones, being given to him by their 
 author, the late President of the Royal Academy, 
 who was an earnest admirer of the Antique, 
 which the collection of casts that adorned his 
 house in Russell Square proved sufficiently ;
 
 FKESCOES IN THE VATICAN, ETC. 57 
 
 consequently he dwelt with more than ordinary 
 pleasure on the original in the Vatican, and 
 possibly his enthusiasm went even beyond that of 
 the sculptor. 
 
 Of the frescoes in the Vatican and Sistine 
 Chapel these artists thought alike, and Lawrence 
 had copies made from some of the figures by 
 Michael Angelo. They also considered that the 
 Hall of Constantine is in a great measure a 
 proof of Raphael's preference for oil painting, as 
 he commenced the works in that chamber in oil, 
 probably feeling that much more could be done 
 with such a vehicle, and also that he would have 
 the power of correcting his work, which, although 
 so good, would not bear the scrutiny that anato- 
 mical knowledge might demand. For often it 
 would be very difficult or impossible to place the 
 skeleton within some of Raphael's contours- yet 
 it may be said that such errors were the errors 
 of his scholars : however, he has left the most 
 
 D3
 
 58 FRESCO FAINTING. 
 
 exquisite specimens of beauty, roundness, and 
 chiaroscuro in his figures of Justice and Benig- 
 nity, which are painted in oil, and claim the 
 admiration of all artists. Camucini had copies of 
 them in his studio at Rome. 
 
 Fresco painting may be the means of improving 
 the class of subjects brought before the world 
 at the present time, as the art of painting is 
 now much degraded by the trifling and humble 
 matter produced; which neither contribute to 
 the advancement of piety, patriotism, or senti- 
 ment, but are mere examples of dexterity and 
 practice. At the same time fresco painting may 
 suspend the progress of colouring and chiaroscuro, 
 not owing to any deficiency in the artists 
 employed, but to the nature of the materials, 
 for colour cannot be produced in perfection with- 
 out a shining or polished surface, as is exemplified 
 in precious stones, marbles, woods, &c., therefore 
 the easel should not be neglected for plaster
 
 GENERAL EFFECT. 59 
 
 walls. Both may proceed, the one for great and 
 decorative works, the other for domestic ornament, 
 to contribute to the improvement of mankind 
 in those places, where repose, pleasure, and in- 
 struction are sought. 
 
 " The Battle of Constantine and Maxentius " is 
 executed in fresco' by Julio Romano, and few 
 have been found to advocate this work of art, 
 for even with the design of Raphael, beautiful 
 as it is in parts, the whole is far from satisfactory, 
 and deficient in breadth of chiaroscuro ; the 
 greatest admirers of the designer of this work do 
 not consider it a good specimen of his style of 
 composition. 
 
 It is probable that general effect in a picture 
 is *o necessary that its absence cannot be satis- 
 factory. By general effect must be understood 
 that agreeable contrast of masses of light and 
 shadow, or local light and dark, which at once 
 calls the spectator to the most important matter ;
 
 60 FAILURES TO ATTAIN EFFECT. 
 
 but if a picture consist of spots of light and 
 dark, the eye and mind are equally distracted; 
 the work is unsatisfactory to the first and makes 
 no impression on the last, so that a good outline 
 is more impressive. 
 
 Another failure often occurs in supposing that 
 the mere arrangement of unobjectionable colours, 
 on well drawn and draped figures, can satisfy the 
 judgment or please the taste of the spectator : this 
 is the cause that many able efforts fail in their 
 effect, as exemplified in the works produced in a 
 nation highly meritorious for its zeal in the 
 resuscitation of fine art. 
 
 Effect must be attained, and the stronger the 
 better; and it is possible that if Raphael had 
 been a greater master of chiaroscuro and colour, 
 his works would have forced conviction and 
 wonder, where they now only give pleasure and 
 elicit approbation. It has been unwisely said, 
 that the one class of art and the other are not
 
 THE PRINCIPLE OF COMBINATION. 61 
 
 compatible ; and it is believed to be so, because 
 the Bolognese school tried the combination, and 
 failed ; but that school, with all its power, failed 
 not from the impossibility of attaining the 
 object, but from its inability to accomplish it. 
 Generally speaking, dry and ordinary truth satis- 
 fied them ; they did not look to the perfections 
 or casualties of nature, from which all that is 
 intended to strike in art must be selected. 
 
 Among the proofs of the possibility of such 
 combinations, many examples from Raphael may 
 be produced; for it is a common observation 
 among the instructed, that " The Miracle of Bol- 
 sena" has the colour and effect of Titian ; and 
 also, that "The Liberation of Peter" has the 
 chiaroscuro of Rembrandt, which proves the possi- 
 bility of uniting the most beautiful and interesting 
 design with the attraction of effect; also that 
 Raphael did not disdain its aid when he could 
 accomplish it. That wonderful artist seized every-
 
 62 CHIAROSCUEO. 
 
 thing that could enhance the impression his 
 works were intended to make : therefore, he did 
 not scruple to avail himself of the works of 
 Ghiberti, Signorelli, John of Fiesole, Masaccio; 
 and nearly in every instance his knowledge 
 and taste were improved on examples he 
 imitated. 
 
 Michael Angelo felt this requisite in art, and 
 in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, his pictures 
 of " The Creation of Man/' " David and Goliath," 
 "Elisha," "Judith and Holofernes," "Haman 
 Punished," and "The Brazen Serpent" with 
 many others, illustrate his power in this respect. 
 " The Last Judgment " itself is replete with the 
 power of chiaroscuro, and if it were not, the 
 wonders of that transcendent and immortal work 
 would not have been endurable. It would have 
 been a mass of variegated spots, offensive to the 
 eye, and unheeded by the mind. 
 
 There are two judgments, one the judgment
 
 STA. MARIA DEGLI ANGELI. 63 
 
 of artists, the other the judgment of the world : 
 the first judge from truth and knowledge ; the 
 second from the pleasure derived ; both ought to 
 be admitted ; but the effort should be to advance 
 art, and to convey to the spectator a recollection 
 of the greatest beauties and truths that he has 
 ever seen nature display. 
 
 The Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli ex- 
 cited Chantrey's admiration : of the picture of 
 St. Sebastian, which he calls a fresco, painted by 
 Domenichino, he wrote in his guide-book, " This 
 picture was originally painted on the walls of 
 St. Peter's, and was removed with great inge- 
 nuity to give place to a copy in mosaic ; it has all 
 the mellowness and richness of an oil painting; 
 it is in a very fine state of preservation, and is 
 one of the finest frescoes in existence." 
 
 The Doria Gallery of pictures disappointed him 
 very much, and he has rather a bitter invective 
 against that collection, written in his pocket-
 
 64 THE DOEIA GALLERY. 
 
 book, probably under the impression that he had 
 bestowed on unattractive matter, time which he 
 would willingly have given to objects more im- 
 portant or agreeable. His note is as follows : 
 
 " Doria Palace. There is an immense number 
 of pictures, the greater part of them very bad, a 
 few tolerable, but not one excellent. We were 
 much disappointed, and felt some difficulty in 
 passing an hour-and-half in this place. There 
 are two pictures by Claude which are more 
 praised than they deserve, particularly when 
 compared with some of the excellent pictures now 
 in England; there is a large Garofalo, and Paul 
 Brills in abundance." 
 
 The Portico of Octavia, for its grand propor- 
 tions, and as far as the remains will permit a 
 judgment, accorded with the taste of the sculptor 
 for the simple and majestic. He names it briefly 
 thus : " Temple of Juno, Portico of Octavia, 
 originally a most beautiful building, contained
 
 STA. MARIA IN COSMEDIN. 65 
 
 two hundred and seventy columns, now a 
 miserable stinking fish-market." 
 
 Note on the House of Pilate : " An old ruin 
 commonly called the House of Pilate, brick 
 columns, with marble capitals; the plain parts are 
 all brick; the mouldings, beautifully ornamented, 
 are of marble and in ruin ; the mixture appears 
 very agreeable." 
 
 "Temple of Vesta, originally built by Numa 
 Pompilius; burnt and rebuilt by Vespasian, now 
 called La Madonna del Sole ; the joints of the 
 columns are remarkably good." 
 
 " Santa Maria in Cosmedin contains a large 
 circular mask, five feet six in diameter, of Jupiter 
 Ammon, with the mouth open, called 'The Mouth 
 of Truth ;' on taking an oath, the hand was 
 placed on this mouth; only six columns of the 
 original building remain." 
 
 It is to be regretted that during Chantrey's 
 journey in Italy he made so few notes ; however,
 
 66 THE "BACCHUS. 
 
 his thoughts were developed in conversation upon 
 the works he had seen, and were judicious and 
 in accordance with the testimonies offered by 
 all his predecessors of acknowledged taste and 
 ability. 
 
 In one of his pocket-books, mixed with various 
 calculations for marble and daily expenses in tra- 
 velling, are notices of the " Bacchus " by Michael 
 Angelo, and also of that by Sansovino : of the 
 first he says, " There is very little to admire in this 
 figure, the outside of the left thigh very flat, the 
 face mean and unpleasant, the mouth open, 
 perhaps with the idea of expressing drunkenness ; 
 it is six feet high." Of the " Bacchus " by Sanso- 
 vino, he writes, "This figure is four feet six 
 inches high, beautiful, spirited and graceful, well- 
 proportioned ; a little boy with goat's feet sits 
 behind his right leg." 
 
 In the Basilica of St. John Lateran he praises 
 the statues of " St, James the Great," and
 
 "DESCENT FROM THE CEOSS." 67 
 
 "St. Matthew;" the latter the best, but he 
 thought the figure theatrical and unnatural. 
 
 Among the paintings and drawings that in- 
 duced him to make a written observation, was 
 "The Descent from the Cross," at Florence, by 
 Beato Angelico da Fiesole, of which he writes, 
 " The figures are grand and unaffected, the drapery 
 simple, the actions natural; free from all aca- 
 demic rules, but full of simplicity and truth. 
 The draperies deep blue and red, at a distance 
 appear projecting from the ground. Round the 
 heads of the females are circles about an inch 
 broad of burnished gold, yet, notwithstanding all 
 this glare and want of harmony, there is an ex- 
 cellence that was worthy of the attention of 
 Raphael. The buildings are stiff; trees, blue 
 sky, and two groups of small angels form the 
 background of this remarkable work." 
 
 Chantrey's respect for the early masters was 
 great, although he did not think that it would be
 
 68 THE EARLY MASTERS. 
 
 better to study at Assist, Padua, and Pisa, than 
 in the Vatican. He believed that Michael Angelo, 
 Raphael, and Leonardo, had carried forward sim- 
 plicity, in union with strength and grandeur, and 
 that the progression from the early masters to 
 the time of these great men might be easily 
 traced. For he saw, as any one may see, the 
 form and composition in Ghiberti, which led 
 to the Stanze, the Cartoons, and the Bible of 
 Raphael ; but he thought it useless to go to the 
 tributary streams when the copious river offered 
 the united product of all. He believed that Flax- 
 man and Stothard had transferred the simple 
 beauties of these earlier artists into their own 
 compositions, and the sculptor wished to see 
 British artists emulous to exceed the excellences 
 of Raphael, rather than to be content in tracing 
 the progress of his steps. 
 
 Artists should start, if it were possible, with 
 minds imbued with the beauty of all that
 
 BEAUTIES IN THEIR WORKS. 69 
 
 Raphael, Michael Angelo, and Leonardo col- 
 lected; and, however fruitless their endeavour 
 to surpass such mighty predecessors, yet im- 
 provement and some glory might be gained in 
 the attempt. But it is surely next to useless to 
 travel over the same ground of practice from 
 which these great artists collected their infor- 
 mation, and brought the whole nearer to 
 maturity. 
 
 The beauty of some figures in the early masters 
 arises from ordinary circumstances. Judicious 
 men, who looked to nature for their art, unavoid- 
 ably included beautiful examples and develop- 
 ments in their pursuit, and we now select the 
 abstract gracefulness to be found amidst coarse 
 and ordinary representations, as if they had been 
 the inventions of the artist, when they were 
 really only the portraiture of graceful individuals 
 serving as models to the painter or sculptor. 
 And such has been the case ever since : great
 
 70 CHANTREY*S CRITICISMS. 
 
 combinations, expression, symmetry, and good 
 taste in the balance of parts have resulted from 
 an enlarged scope of mental power under the 
 guidance of reason. 
 
 Chantrey's observations on art were of the 
 most common sense kind, and his reasoning on 
 every representation induced persons to think 
 that he had no poetic feeling; yet attention 
 to his statues of children, his monuments to 
 females, his group of Mrs. Jordan and infants, 
 must correct such a supposition. He gave the 
 highest praise to every excellence and difficulty 
 overcome ; he used to say, " An artist should study 
 what to avoid as well as what to imitate." His 
 estimation of renowned works by early masters 
 was very great, yet he did not hesitate to strike at 
 their defects, for he felt that the blind adoration 
 of right and wrong was likely to mislead the 
 public. Their merits of simplicity and grace are 
 undeniable., but the imitation has often in
 
 PROGRESSION OF ART. 71 
 
 injudicious hands become affectation or osten- 
 tation of knowledge. When we see that the 
 successors of these early masters were Michael 
 Angelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci, we 
 cannot but acknowledge that art made a pro- 
 digious advance, for these three have selected in 
 art and nature to the best of their judgment, 
 with the hope to approach perfection in their own 
 works. They did not content themselves with the 
 portraiture of ordinary nature; their works are 
 like the Antique, nature, but nature in her 
 perfect form, for no example of art has yet been 
 produced that goes beyond some part or portion 
 of produceable nature. It is science that has 
 constructed a congruous whole from examples 
 of perfection in separate parts; and they who 
 admire beyond their merit the early works, 
 must be more acquainted with ordinary por- 
 traiture than with the specimens of nature's 
 excellence.
 
 72 EARLY ART. 
 
 The question respecting the admiration of early 
 art, that is the art preceding the time of Raphael, 
 i$ } Whether it be preferable to have fine ideas 
 and great religious and moral facts repre- 
 sented by bad productions of nature rather than 
 by good? For all are willing to allow that the 
 early masters felt without affectation, and, to the 
 best of their abilities, personified subjects simply. 
 Doubtless, it was only want of opportunity 
 to study or to seek the perfection of form, that 
 prevented such artists from developing and 
 clothing their ideas in the more perfect out- 
 lines understood in the time of Raphael; and 
 the question is reduced to this, whether it be 
 better to illustrate great acts and fine thoughts 
 by perfect forms, or merely to imitate the ordi- 
 nary personages and combinations that may be 
 seen in a camera obscura. 
 
 It is not so much a matter of wonder that art 
 should have risen so high under the hands of
 
 DECLINE OF ART. 73 
 
 Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Leonardo, as it is 
 extraordinary that it should have declined from 
 that time. The works of the early painters of 
 the Italian and German schools, with the wonders 
 of a Ghiberti, might well produce a Raphael, but 
 that his contemporaries should be so inferior as 
 not to improve on such examples, is derogatory 
 to the powerful intellect of man, and usual 
 progression. Much has been done since that 
 period of a very respectable character, but nothing 
 that has carried art beyond the bounds those 
 artists attained. 
 
 It is not easy to point out what has been the 
 reason, but even at this time we see such a va- 
 cillation between the grandest character of art, 
 and the meagre examples of the early German 
 and Italian schools, that the question is some- 
 times proposed, and finds advocates, whether that 
 dry and meagre style be not preferable to the 
 imitation of beautiful nature ; and it can but
 
 74 THE MEAGRE STYLE. 
 
 induce this reflection, that the works of Raphael, 
 Michael Angelo,* and Leonardo, with Phidias 
 and all the great sculptors, have injured rather 
 than improved art, by selecting from nature 
 all that is deemed most graceful, as well as 
 most perfect ; for the fine forms of these masters 
 indicate the perfection of strength, agility, and 
 grace. Therefore, there must be a mistake 
 somewhere, if we find meagre and emaciated 
 individuals introduced as the standard ex- 
 amples of gods, saints, heroes, kings, and cour- 
 tiers, f It may be ingenious to invent or combine 
 
 * " It is difficult to decide who understood Michael Angelo less, 
 his admirers or his censors, though both rightly agree in placing 
 him at the head of an epoch ; those of the re-establishment, these 
 of the perversion, of style." Remarks on tfie School of Florence 
 by Puseli. 
 
 f In one of Wilkie's letters from Rome, iu 1 826, he says : 
 " Some Germans, with more of the devotion of a sect than 
 of a school, have -attracted much attention by reverting to the 
 beginning of art, by studying Raffaelle's master rather than 
 Raffaelle, in hopes that, by going over the same ground, they 
 may from Pietro Perugino attain all the excellences of his great 
 scholar."
 
 THE ENGLISH SCHOOL. 75 
 
 to form a new style, but to what end ? If nature 
 be the object to be imitated, much has been, 
 yet much remains to be done, to approach the 
 beauties of creation, either in the animal or 
 vegetable world. 
 
 The English school has advanced in many 
 of the great qualities necessary to a fine picture, 
 and it will be dangerous to adopt a style sub- 
 versive of these qualities, and abandon brilliant 
 and harmonious colouring, with great breadth 
 and union of parts, for a drier style, unsuited to 
 the established practice of the country; and it 
 would be better to attend to the admirable remark 
 in one of Mr. Eastlake's distinguished works, 
 namely, " If we are to look to the German, the 
 first quality that invites our attention, is their 
 patriotism." 
 
 A new style was tried by the French school, 
 under David, and without success ; yet certainly 
 the hard and metallic representations of that 
 
 E 2
 
 76 THE FRENCH SCHOOL. 
 
 school were better types of human form, than 
 withered examples of mankind; but the French 
 have become rational in their art, and now they 
 often produce good transcripts of fine nature. 
 Yet it must be allowed, that in the method before 
 alluded to, many good designs, much good draw- 
 ing, and striking effects were produced, yet it did 
 not recal what we admire nature; therefore it 
 has been abandoned by that nation replete with 
 talent and ingenuity. 
 
 Nature was Chantrey's chief study, yet his 
 estimation of certain works in an artificial style 
 was great, but it was difficult to induce him to 
 discuss their merits. 
 
 The Elgin Marbles had his highest esteem ; 
 the "Venus" of Melos, the " Discobolos," the 
 ' ' Jason " or " Cincinnatus," were amongst his 
 favourites. The " Laocoon " was the chief orna- 
 ment of his statue gallery, with the " Apollo/' the 
 " Diana," and the " Gladiator."
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO. RAPHAEL. 77 
 
 When abroad, Chantrey attended to the fres- 
 coes of Michael Angelo, Raphael, the "Ma- 
 donna del Sacco," by Andrea del Sarto, and 
 the " St. Sebastian," in the Chiesa degli 
 Angeli, by Domenichino. He was at all times 
 cautious in what he said of the old masters; 
 he was an accurate observer of their merits 
 and defects ; of their finish, his sight pre- 
 vented him from forming a due estimate, but 
 of their design, drawing, chiaroscuro, and above 
 all, their expression, he was a most able and 
 rational judge. 
 
 Chantrey' s esteem for the works of Michael 
 Angelo was extreme, yet this esteem did not run 
 into rhapsody : the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel 
 excited his wonder for boldness of design, vigor- 
 ous execution, and masculine energy. " The Last 
 Judgment" was, he considered, a masterpiece of 
 composition and force, grand without being extra- 
 vagant, terrific without being monstrous, a scene
 
 78 "THE LAST JUDGMENT." 
 
 replete with human virtue and vice, but rising 
 above the meanness of human infirmity, whether 
 beatified or condemned. It is a triumphant con- 
 trast to the same subject by Rubens, at Munich, 
 in which picture it is difficult to admit that 
 splendid colour and powerful chiaroscuro can 
 compensate for gross and vulgar forms, sinking to 
 disgusting examples, derogatory to fine art in 
 representation ; yet the chiaroscuro is so perfect, 
 the colour so rich, the figures so round, that it 
 is ungrateful in the spectator to find a fault. 
 Chantrey never sought a style on which to build 
 his own, or, if he had any example, it was in the 
 treatment of the Marbles of the Parthenon, for 
 his statues and portraiture evidently partake of 
 that character of art. He related that he was 
 found sleeping in the Vatican, before one of the 
 celebrated statues, which never could have hap- 
 pened before the marbles in the British Museum, 
 if one may judge by the sensibility which
 
 EXPRESSION OF CHARACTER. 79 
 
 pervaded his observations on those beautiful 
 creations. 
 
 The remark has been often made that Chantrey's 
 art was simple imitation, which is in part true, 
 though far from entirely so, for the pathos of all 
 his figures was the result of his own reflection 
 or imagination. He never saw Grattan speaking, 
 yet he introduced the energy of attitude which 
 he thought would result from the mind of that 
 orator; in Canning and Pitt the firmness of the 
 men, in Jackson the repose, and in all his figures 
 he contemplated the fitting result of the mental 
 character of the individual ; to all he contrived 
 to give grandeur, without deducting from like- 
 ness. His mind was more turned to the tender 
 than to the violent or heroic, and his treatment 
 of sepulchral subjects indicated this feeling; 
 in the memorials of children and females his 
 success was pre-eminent, and when he told the 
 spectator of the death of the head of a family by
 
 80 STATUES IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 a wreath of lilies, in which the principal flower 
 was broken from the circle, he did as much as 
 any poetic metaphor has ever accomplished ; the 
 fading form of the flower to signify the con- 
 sumptive, and the drooping for the sorrowful, 
 were all touches of that deep, affectionate, and 
 sympathising spirit with which he was so sensibly 
 imbued. 
 
 There are some good statues by Chantrey in 
 Edinburgh : that of the Chief Justice Dundas is 
 very elegant and simple; the statue of Lord 
 Melville is rather heavy in character, and is 
 one of the sculptor's least successful efforts. His 
 bronze statue of Pitt is excellent, and that of 
 George the Fourth of superior character, but 
 much injured by the location, as it was modelled 
 to stand against a wall, or in a situation where 
 the back part of the figure would not be con- 
 spicuous. If the bronze statue at Edinburgh 
 were placed where the monument to Walter
 
 DUNDAS. MELVILLE. SCOTT. 81 
 
 Scott now is, and the gothic monument on the 
 present site of the statue, the embellishment of 
 the city would be increased ; for an elevated object 
 is wanted in George Street, and is very objection- 
 able in Princes Street, as it cruelly injures the 
 beautiful and classic building of the Institution, 
 by Playfair : probably, there is room enough 
 between the angles of Hanover Street to afford a 
 space for the Scott testimonial. 
 
 Chantrey was always too much employed on 
 portraiture to attempt any historical or poetical 
 subjects, but if he had, he would not have been 
 content until he had succeeded in telling his story 
 well, and giving interest to every part. Had he 
 been commissioned to execute a group to be seen 
 on all sides, he would have laboured to produce a 
 satisfactory effect in every point of view, which pro- 
 bably is the most difficult task in the art of sculp- 
 ture; for with the exception of the Athletse or 
 boxers, there is not transmitted to us a composition 
 
 E 3
 
 82 MODE OF SEIZING EXPRESSION. 
 
 of a perfect character in that respect. The 
 " Laocoon," admirable as it is, only exhibits a 
 group suited to a stage audience. The compo- 
 sition of " Dirce," at Naples, has but little claim 
 to praise, and some modern works of that class are 
 more meritorious than any known to us by the 
 ancient sculptors. 
 
 He *vas always desirous to give expression to 
 his busts, even beyond accuracy of feature ; and 
 this feeling often induced him to invite his sitters 
 to breakfast, that he might observe their habitual 
 appearance. In many instances he changed an 
 over serious expression to one of cheerfulness, by 
 observing his sitter when telling a story, or elated 
 by conversation. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel's portrait was one, in which a 
 great change was made after the Right Honour- 
 able Baronet had told the sculptor an amusing 
 anecdote. 
 
 He did not disparage what is called a dry style
 
 ELEVATION OP THE HEAD. 83 
 
 of art, but he considered that it ought to be the 
 commencement of the student's career, as it is 
 the beginning of correct graphic representation ; 
 but when the knowledge of natural construction 
 is obtained, he expected the artist's mind to 
 expand to the selection of the perfections of 
 nature. 
 
 Poverty in art is frequently called purity, and 
 the spectator is deluded by careful formality into 
 the belief that such is the result of correctness 
 and truth; truth it may be, but it is truth in its 
 inferior development. 
 
 In Chantrey's busts the elevation of the head 
 to give dignity to the expression is predominant ; 
 and when he accompanied Jackson, the portrait 
 painter, to Lord Farnborough's, at Bromley Hill, 
 he ftnpressed on that painter the necessity or 
 propriety of attending to this, which advice Jack- 
 son followed with success in the portraits of Lord 
 and Lady Farnborough.
 
 84 SUCCESS IX DRAPED STATUES. 
 
 Probably uo draped statues, ancient or modern, 
 have surpassed those by the hand of Chantrey : 
 the marble figure of Watt, at Glasgow, that of 
 Roscoe, at Liverpool, and above all, the dig- 
 nified and commanding statue of Canning, 
 which stands on the staircase of the Town Hall 
 in that city, proclaim at once the powers of 
 mind in the statesman, and mental influence in 
 the artist. 
 
 The statue of Dalton, at Manchester, exhibited 
 in 1837, is of first-rate character, and merits a 
 better location to do justice to its importance. 
 
 Dean Jackson, Sir J. Banks, Mr. Coutts, 
 Grattan, and many others, tend to dignify and 
 commemorate British art, and record British 
 worth. 
 
 Chantrey cast aside every extrinsic re^om- 
 mendation, and depended entirely on form and 
 effect. He took the greatest care that his shadows 
 should tell boldly, and in masses. He was cautious
 
 DISLIKE TO ORNAMENT. 85 
 
 in introducing them, and always reduced them 
 as much as might be compatible with the com- 
 plete development of the figure. He never intro- 
 duced a fold that could be dispensed with, rarely 
 deviated from long lines, and avoided abrupt 
 foldings. His dislike to ornament in sculpture 
 was extreme;* in marble he thought it intolerable, 
 and reluctantly admitted it in bronze, for it was 
 long before he could consent to decorate the 
 royal robe of George the Fourth, on the bronze 
 statue at Brighton, and he would not have done 
 so, if he had not been assured of the good effect 
 produced by ornament in the bronze figures 
 at Inspruck. 
 
 To sculpture in bronze he always objected, as 
 limiting the power of the artist to outline, for the 
 light must be very favourable to develop so dark 
 an object, and in such a climate as that of Great 
 
 * " Ambitiosa recidet 
 
 Ornamenta." HOR. Art. Poet. 447.
 
 86 ADOPTION OP CRITICISMS. 
 
 Britain, nothing should be expected in bronze 
 beyond a clear and expressive contour. 
 
 Whilst executing the horse for Sir Thomas 
 Munro, Chantrey was extremely embarrassed by 
 the conflicting opinions of his friends and visitors. 
 Some wished a horse in the classic style ; some, a 
 steed like that of Marcus Aurelius ; some, an 
 Arabian; others, a large war-horse; and many, 
 nay, the greater part, a specimen of blood, fit 
 for Newmarket, but very unfit for sculpture ; 
 so that in endeavouring to diminish flesh for one 
 connoisseur, and to increase bone for another, for 
 a third to lengthen the legs, to even the line 
 of back and to elongate the neck for a fourth, 
 the sculptor became confused, and materially 
 injured his work, by departing from his own good 
 sense, and yielding to inconsiderate criticism. 
 
 Very few are equal to this arduous and danger- 
 ous duty, and every one who presumes to it 
 should examine himself if he be competent to
 
 HIGH PEDESTALS. 87 
 
 say what may comprise a great and perfect 
 union, and how far one mode or manner can, 
 or cannot, be reconciled with another; every 
 one can judge of some particular part, for each 
 person's attention in life is drawn to some 
 pleasure or pursuit, in which he may become 
 accurate, and there is a classical illustration of 
 this, known to every one, which it would be well 
 to remember.* 
 
 When convinced of the propriety of any thing 
 in his works, he was not to be moved, and he 
 resisted all admonitions, criticisms, and even 
 threats. He persisted in raising the statue of 
 Pitt, in Hanover Square, on a high pedestal, 
 against the wish of the committee; but he re- 
 spectfully volunteered to relinquish the com- 
 mission, rather than his intention of placing the 
 figure in its present lofty position. And there 
 
 * Vide ^Elian, Var. Hist. lib. ii. 2 ; and Pliny, Nat. Hist. 
 lib. xxxv. 36.
 
 88 PREFERENCE OF ENGLISH EPITAPHS. 
 
 can be but little doubt, that great dignity is 
 gained by raising the object; for without com- 
 menting on the merit of the work, it may be well 
 to compare it with statues on lower pedestals : 
 his opinion was similar with respect to the 
 statue of the Duke of Wellington at the Royal 
 Exchange. 
 
 His monumental statues were of the most 
 simple kind ; and so were the decorations 011 his 
 tablets for inscription ; so much so, that ordinary 
 taste too often required more extraneous embellish- 
 ments than the sculptor was inclined to admit. 
 His love of simplicity extended to every thing, 
 and in his career he often expressed his objection 
 to inflated encomiums, and always preferred an 
 English epitaph. The present Sir George Staun- 
 ton consulted him as to the inscription on the 
 monument to his father, and that accomplished 
 scholar, and proficient in all tongues, was so 
 satisfied with Chantrey's good sense, that he
 
 CHIAROSCURO OF STATUES. 89 
 
 relinquished the memorial to the sculptor's head, 
 as well as to his hand, for accomplishment. 
 
 At an early period, when he was inclined to 
 follow painting as a profession, he displayed a 
 similar disposition for the un-ornamented style, 
 and his works at that period, though few, indicate 
 a masterly mind and noble conception of light 
 and shadow, which he studied particularly. He 
 always professed that every good statue should 
 produce a chiaroscuro, that would be perfect in 
 painting, and that the one art might be con- 
 sidered a good rule for the other in this respect. 
 
 He was much consulted by his friends on the 
 subject of architecture, and particularly by those 
 who had any intention to build, for owing to his 
 fortunate and judicious association with men of 
 ability in all arts and sciences, he was competent 
 to give a very rational and generally a technical 
 judgment. His taste for architecture was con- 
 spicuous, and he suggested to many of his friends
 
 90 ARCHITECTURAL OPINIONS. 
 
 useful improvements in their mansions, gardens, 
 terraces, and walks ; and in these particulars his 
 good sense prevailed. Internal convenience was 
 never sacrificed for external appearance ; he 
 believed that an able architect could always con- 
 struct the beautiful on the useful. He considered 
 that quantity and proportion were the great con- 
 stituents of fine character in statues and edifices ; 
 and thought that all decoration was ineffective 
 and worse than useless, if the general propor- 
 tions and relative contrasts were defective. He 
 held superfluous ornament in architecture, paint- 
 ing, and sculpture, to be a concealment of 
 inability, or a development of puerile taste, in 
 lieu of grand forms, which in art satisfy the 
 mind ; he believed that fine buildings, if di- 
 vested of their ornaments, would still, from their 
 bare quantities, produce a good effect. In his 
 own art, he shunned every thing merely decorative ; 
 and in painting, the elaboration of ornaments,
 
 THE NELSON STATUE. 91 
 
 furniture, utensils, and unimportant matter, he 
 held to be a debasement of the great style. To 
 attend to accessories, and neglect human ex- 
 pression, proves the dexterity of the hand, but 
 not the acuteness of the mind ; however, he 
 did not disparage familiar subjects, but took 
 great pleasure in the approach to excellence in 
 any style. 
 
 He was often requested to recommend able 
 artificers, and in such cases he made his friends' 
 interest his own. He was always consulted by 
 the heads of the government on the propriety of 
 public testimonials ; among others he was de- 
 sired to send his opinion as to the propriety of 
 erecting a column, with a statue on the top, to 
 the memory of Lord Nelson; he seriously and 
 reasonably objected to a column, for a column 
 ought to be part of a building, or if it be used 
 as a monument, it should be treated as a bio- 
 graphical volume, with the acts of the hero
 
 92 SUGGESTION FOR A NATIONAL MEMORIAL. 
 
 sculptured on the shaft of the pillar on the 
 capital of which he stands, similar to those of 
 Trajan and Antoninus. Chantrey also wished to 
 see the useful united with the commemorative, 
 and would have preferred an architectural edifice, 
 adapted to accommodate (with dwellings rent- 
 free) the veteran officers of the navy, and the 
 site adorned by a fine statue of Nelson, forming 
 altogether a memorial worthy of the hero, and 
 indicative of the gratitude, generosity, and bene- 
 volence of the nation. 
 
 Chantrey had no objection to architectural 
 memorials, for he wished every branch of the fine 
 arts to be encouraged, but always in its most 
 appropriate character, and he wisely deemed that 
 every step ought to be an advance on the last 
 effort. This is the only way that progress can 
 be made ; it is never to be achieved by merely 
 following predecessors, though they should be 
 studied, with the hope that they may be
 
 STUDY OF PREDECESSORS. 93 
 
 surpassed, not pursued in the same path, but in 
 one collateral; that the aspirant may not find 
 his passage to advancement impeded by his 
 precursor : " Turpe etiam illud est, contentum 
 esse id consequi, quod imiteris. Nam rursus 
 quid erat futurum, si nemo plus effecisset eo 
 quern sequebatur ? " QUINT. De Imitatione. 
 
 Believing that the greatest moral advantages 
 were to be derived from the cultivation of art 
 and science, he hoped that ambitious men would 
 be stimulated to seek immortality by contri- 
 buting to the blessings of social and intellectual 
 communion, rather than by prowess in war, which 
 is common to all people, whilst the mild and 
 intellectual evince that divine influence, which 
 rules benevolently, bestowing and instructing. 
 
 He had a great dislike to competition; he 
 objected on the principle, that in consequence 
 of so many being disappointed, the temptation 
 became injurious : he also doubted the com-
 
 94 DISLIKE OF COMPETITION. 
 
 petency of the judges ; and still more, the all- 
 influencing and unavoidable effect of partiality ; 
 for who with a kindly heart can resist a dis- 
 position towards friends, or assisting the needy ? 
 This mode has often been objected to, and may 
 be avoided, and still leave a fair field for the 
 exertion of talent. If a national work be re- 
 quired, let a number of artists be requested to 
 make sketches, and receive a named sum for each ; 
 and let that which is most approved be adopted 
 as the design, from which the large work is to 
 be executed. This would be no hardship to any 
 one by whom this sort of competition might 
 be undertaken, and would be made a source of 
 profit, practice, and notoriety, to all ; instead 
 of occasioning examples of failure, distress, 
 despair, sickness, consumption, and even self- 
 destruction. 
 
 The course of Chantrey's journey to Rome and 
 his return was rendered agreeable by his com-
 
 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 95 
 
 panions ; and by his own good humour and 
 hilarity, he turned every inconvenience into a 
 joke, and thus dispelled, disappointment by 
 a laugh. Each traveller of the party took some 
 department of management on himself. The 
 sculptor took charge of the travelling and the 
 posting; he used to laugh at a standing joke 
 against him, for having, on one occasion, corded 
 up the luggage in such a manner with the bed 
 of the carriage that it could not move ; so that, 
 with casualties and mistakes, the travellers always 
 found some subject for mirth. The Italian 
 postillions, some in costume, some in rags, their 
 naked legs, their gesticulations, cracking their 
 long whips, fiercely menacing their uninjured 
 beasts, amused Chantrey exceedingly; at their 
 frauds and facetiousness he laughed, yet often 
 showed them that he was not to be the dupe 
 of their cunning; still he secured smiling faces 
 by his good humour and liberality.
 
 96 RETURN TO ENGLAND. 
 
 On the return of the party to England, 
 Thomas Moore , the poet, joined them, and it may 
 be easily imagined how much the talents, wit, 
 urbanity, and cheerfulness of that gentleman con- 
 tributed to their gratification. The poet and the 
 sculptor continued to live on terms of most cor- 
 dial intimacy and familiarity, of which the 
 following may serve as a proof: 
 
 15, DUKE STREET, ST. JAMES'S, 
 Friday. 
 
 MY DEAR CHANTREY, 
 
 The enclosed came to me from Paris. 
 Why don't you ever look in upon me with that 
 rubicund face of yours, which it is always a joy 
 to me to see ? Pray do. My best remembrances 
 to Mrs. Chantrey, who I trust is getting better. 
 
 Ever yours, cordially, 
 
 THOMAS MOORE.
 
 CONNEXION WITH THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 97 
 
 Chantrey's attendance, when he was a student 
 in the Royal Academy, was not frequent enough, 
 or sufficiently uninterrupted, to attach him to the 
 institution, or to the men at that time studying 
 there, and some fancied neglect of his incipient 
 talent, pointed out by his solicitous and pre- 
 judging friends, induced him to become indif- 
 ferent to the honours and interests of that 
 body; but as he became acquainted with its 
 merits and its members, his opinions awakened 
 his affection towards the institution and the 
 individuals composing it, and each succeeding 
 year seems to have augmented his respect for 
 the principles of the establishment, as well as his 
 regard for the members. Among others, the high 
 and honourable character of Shee, his courageous 
 advocacy of all that appeared meritorious, and his 
 unselfish devotion to the Royal Academy (in- 
 creased, if possible, since his election to the chair), 
 excited Chantrey's highest approbation, and was
 
 98 FRIENDLY INTERCOURSE. 
 
 his inducement to leave property to provide an 
 annual income to the President of the Royal 
 Academy, in order to make the office less onerous 
 to a person of limited means, yet with abilities 
 suited to the appointment; and often did the 
 sculptor lament that the beneficial effects of his 
 bequest were not likely to be useful to the chair, 
 until a period which the duty and affection of a 
 husband forbade him to anticipate. 
 
 "With the members, Chantrey's intercourse 
 was frequent : his means and liberality enabled 
 him to establish hospitable association. Sundays 
 he generally passed at home, members of the 
 Royal Academy and other intimate friends dined 
 with him. Mr. Stokes was a constant guest, and 
 it was a common occurrence to meet men distin- 
 guished by science or literature ; and perhaps no 
 hospitality short of Lord Essex's, Lord Spencer's, 
 and Lord Holland's, could compete with Chan- 
 trey's. In the evening, the specimens of his
 
 THE SCULPTOR'S HOSPITALITY. 99 
 
 minerals and fossils were examined, and the 
 instructive allurements of the microscope filled 
 every moment with gratification; conversation 
 never failed, and often Lady Chantrey induced 
 the accomplished of her own sex to grace these 
 agreeable meetings, so that as his intimacies in- 
 creased with the members of the Academy, his good 
 opinion of their acts and intentions augmented, 
 and from an indifference respecting the institu- 
 tion, he made the Academy the first object of his 
 thoughts, and has nobly proved it by his will. 
 
 When he became a member of the body, his 
 exertion in council, and in the general assemblies, 
 was zealous and uninterrupted until the end of 
 his mortal career. The little attention given 
 to the higher branches of art in this country 
 induced Chantrey to turn his mind to the 
 promotion of a study, instructive, as well as 
 amusing, to mankind; and as he did not find 
 persons inclined to give commissions or purchase 
 
 F2
 
 100 BEQUEST TO AJIT. 
 
 pictures of a moral, historical, or religious 
 character, he wished to establish a fund to 
 prevent an object so desirable being lost sight 
 of, and left the greater part of his property 
 for that purpose. Such was his trust in the 
 Royal Academy that he confided the decision 
 on works to be selected to the members of 
 that institution; an institution, censured by 
 those individuals, who are little inclined to doubt 
 their own judgment, or question their inex- 
 perience, and who have self-complacency enough 
 to imagine that they can improve arrangements, 
 which have been under the consideration of its 
 members for seventy-nine years. 
 
 He came into the Royal Academy without 
 soliciting or solicitude, neither devoted to, nor 
 objecting to the institution, but his opinion of 
 the integrity of the body induced him often to 
 avow that he felt it a duty to leave for the 
 advancement of art, the wealth that he had
 
 THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 101 
 
 acquired by the profession, with the hope that 
 his endeavours to promote art might enable 
 others to become as successful as himself. 
 
 Europe does not produce a similar institution 
 maintained by its own efforts, and to which 
 neither the government, the country, nor private 
 individuals contribute any thing. It is fortunately 
 honoured, sanctioned, and protected by the Crown, 
 and from that circumstance the nation has the 
 credit of an establishment, which is not the least 
 burthen to the finances, or to the Sovereign, 
 beyond the gracious attention personally offered 
 by the latter. The funds are the product of the 
 exhibition, which comprises the labours of the 
 members of the body, united with the works of 
 those who are aspirants for the honours of the 
 institution, and to which they are, in consequence 
 of being exhibitors, eligible. They are elected as 
 their abilities are developed, and as their claims 
 are acknowledged by the Academy and the public ;
 
 102 CRITICISMS ON PAINTING. 
 
 it is obvious, therefore, that it is the interest of 
 the Royal Academy, as well as its duty to the 
 Sovereign as the head of the institution, to enlist 
 the best talent of the country. 
 
 His criticisms on painting were good, and 
 solid as his judgment in sculpture ; all his obser- 
 vations went forcibly to the main import and 
 intention of a picture ; his first impulse was always 
 to question the mental expression in every 
 work. He was never beguiled by careful com- 
 pleteness, nor by elaborate execution wasted on 
 fundamental error. He expected that where 
 human expression was intended, the greatest 
 force and best execution should appear, namely, 
 in the heads and hands, as the parts indicating the 
 greatest influence of the mind. Still he highly 
 commended a strict attention to accessories ; yet, 
 if superiority did not prevail in the development 
 of passion and sentiment, he deemed the work 
 little more than a specimen of dexterity.
 
 ATTENTION TO DETAIL. 103 
 
 Chantrey thought a great defect arose in the 
 English and foreign schools, from an' attempt 
 to make a picture interesting by accurate 
 detail or minute parts, whilst the more essen- 
 tial had not engaged the mind or feeling of the 
 artist. 
 
 He recommended as an example, the attention 
 of Leonardo da Vinci to expression* in his heads 
 and hands, exemplified in the remnant of " The 
 Last Supper" at Milan, and described by the 
 biographers of that illustrious and accomplished 
 painter, whose care occasioned much delay in 
 his works : for he believed the time better spent 
 in consideration of the characters he introduced, 
 than in fruitless attempts to accomplish manually 
 
 " Sculpture, and, above all, painting, propose to themselves 
 the imitation not only of the forms of nature, but of the charac- 
 ters and passions of the human soul. In those sublime arts, the 
 dexterity of the hand is of little avail, unless it is animated by 
 fancy, and guided by the most correct taste and observation." 
 Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. ii., p. 51.
 
 104 GREAT MASTERS OF DETAIL. 
 
 that which intelligence should dictate. Yet, in 
 addition to the human expressions in the work 
 alluded to, Leonardo painted with scrupulous 
 care the accessories, the table, the cloth, bread, 
 knives, plates, &c., which rendered this work as 
 complete as a cabinet picture. 
 
 Another example may be cited of studious com- 
 pletion in " The Holy Family " by Correggio, now 
 at Parma, commonly called "The Scodella," in 
 which the Scodella, or cup, is painted with a care 
 and correctness worthy of the beautiful heads in 
 the picture. At the same time it should be remem- 
 bered that some works of spirit, energy, and at- 
 mospheric character do not admit of such careful 
 and cautious operation ; such are the pictures by 
 Rubens, Salvator Rosa ; and among the moderns, 
 Turner, for whose talents Chantrey's admiration 
 was unbounded. He could well comprehend the 
 mental scope of that great artist ; and although 
 he disapproved of his later style as compared
 
 ADMIRATION OF TURNER. 105 
 
 with that displayed in his pictures of " Carthage/' 
 " The Tenth Plague/' and " Crossing the Brook/' 
 yet he stood forward at all times in defence of 
 Turner's efforts of imagination, and would not 
 suffer them to be disparaged by those who could 
 see their faults, but could not understand their 
 merits ; for, notwithstanding the colour recently 
 introduced by that surprising artist, he. main- 
 tains a breadth and aerial effect, which under 
 such gorgeous apparel is most difficult to 
 accomplish. 
 
 With all these above-named advantages, this 
 great modern painter has a higher merit, for his 
 perception and display of form surpass any con- 
 temporaries or predecessors ; this observation does 
 not apply to his figures, but to the general forms 
 in the composition of his works, the architecture, 
 the buildings, the mountains, skies, trees, rivers, 
 ships, boats ; for every picture by this able master 
 is replete with graceful lines worthy of the study 
 
 F 3
 
 106 STOTHAED. FLAXMAX. 
 
 of all that may succeed him, and his chiaroscuro 
 is always complete.* 
 
 Stothard was familiar with Chantrey, and the 
 sculptor's admiration of the talents of that artist 
 was great. He considered that Stothard had se- 
 lected and made his own, all the graceful acci- 
 dents of nature that came under his observation, 
 and that he had also availed himself of every 
 simple beauty developed by the masters of Ger- 
 many and Italy anterior to Raphael. 
 
 To the name of Stothard must be added that 
 of Flaxman, whose compositions were considered 
 by Chantrey among the finest works, either an- 
 cient or modern: he would often dwell on the 
 simple, yet majestic style, of the heroic figures in 
 the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the ^schylus ; also, 
 on the grace and purity of his female forms, 
 and the variety and novelty of his designs. 
 
 " Turner will always have his light and shade right, whatever 
 it costs him in colour." RUSK IN.
 
 FUSELI. REYNOLDS. 107 
 
 Fuseli's works, though so opposite to the 
 simple taste of Chantrey, yet excited great 
 respect in the sculptor, and even wonder at 
 the vigour, ingenuity, and grandeur, of his 
 compositions ; he thought the Ghost-scene 
 on the platform in " Hamlet," the " Lazar 
 House," the " Midsummer Night's Dream," 
 and many pictures from Milton, have not been 
 surpassed in originality of thought, and boldness 
 of conception. 
 
 It is almost superfluous to advert to his admi- 
 ration of Sir Joshua Reynolds; and he evinced 
 that he preferred the honour of being able to 
 appreciate the works of that great man, to the 
 reputation of originality ; for when employed 
 to * make a bust of the Rev. Z. Mudge, he 
 imitated precisely the position and manner in 
 which Reynolds has represented him. A similar 
 tribute he paid to Owen in the statue of Dean 
 Jackson ; he was never above borrowing from the
 
 108 ESTEEM FOR W1LKIE. 
 
 suggestions of other artists, and always expressed 
 his obligation. 
 
 " He did not steal, but emulate." DF.NHAM. 
 
 Wilkie was high in Chantrey's esteem as a 
 painter, and as an honourable and conscientious 
 man; no one could have a higher respect for 
 that great artist's talents, although the sub- 
 jects were not of a class to suit the sculptor's 
 taste ; but the admirable expression and excellent 
 arrangement of his groups, his manner of telling 
 a story, and his chiaroscuro received Chantrey's 
 warm encomiums. 
 
 It has been intimated that there had never 
 existed any cordiality or personal regard between 
 these two great contemporary artists, Wilkie and 
 Chantrey. It is true they were neither of them 
 addicted to sentimental effusions, but there is 
 not any circumstance to support the above sug- 
 gestion ; they were often together, and a very 
 different inference might have been drawn from
 
 DIFFERENCE OF CHAKACTER. 109 
 
 the cordial way in which they met, discoursed, 
 and acted ; Chantrey was never heard to utter a 
 word of disparagement with respect to Wilkie, 
 even in joke, though the sculptor's hilarity, good 
 nature, and joyous spirit made him delight in 
 everything that produced mirth and humour, 
 which might seem opposite to the gravity of 
 Wilkie' s character. 
 
 Chantrey was so incapable of carrying hypocrisy 
 into his connection with his fellows, that his 
 friendship towards the great painter may be well 
 believed to have been sincere. Wilkie in his few 
 letters to the sculptor (few of course, since they 
 were near neighbours almost all their days, and 
 met each other constantly,) uses a tone remark- 
 ably cordial; and there is one fact, which will 
 be considered to settle the question Wilkie 
 appointed Chantrey one of his three executors. 
 That Wilkie and Chantrey were not extremely 
 intimate, was the result of difference in human
 
 110 ANECDOTES OP WILKIE. 
 
 nature j it arose from the dissimilarity of disposi- 
 tion ; the latter was open, fearless, and communi- 
 cative ; the former was cautious and reserved ; 
 yet both were generous, both were kind, and 
 always united, when any noble or liberal project 
 was contemplated. 
 
 Chantrey's respect for Wilkie was proved, when 
 the former was knighted; for he told Sir Herbert 
 Taylor that he objected to receive that mark of 
 dignity whilst Wilkie remained a commoner. 
 
 Wilkie's confidence in Chantrey was such that, 
 when finishing the picture of " The Chelsea Pen- 
 sioners," the Duke of Wellington was sitting to 
 Chantrey for his bust, which induced Wilkie to 
 ask his friend if he would tell the duke that the 
 sum named for the picture would be a very slender 
 remuneration for the time and labour bestowed. 
 Chantrey undertook this delicate office, and ob- 
 tained for Wilkie an augmentation of the amount 
 proposed, or expected by either party.
 
 AVERSION TO DISPUTE. Ill 
 
 He loved to see ability rewarded, and would 
 willingly exert himself to this end; and often 
 when his words were ineffective, his purse con- 
 tributed a compensation ; from his early career 
 his disposition led him to encourage rising artists, 
 and his generous nature induced him to excuse 
 their defects, and strongly to recommend the 
 beauties of their works. 
 
 Chantrey was always averse to dispute and 
 long argument, either in private or public, and 
 his quick and accurate view of things rendered 
 it unnecessary, and often prevented unpleasant 
 discussions. At the Royal Academy he could 
 never patiently endure the assembly of the 
 members to be made an arena for dispute; he 
 wished every man to come forward with his case 
 clear and distinct ; yet never resting entirely on his 
 own judgment, but preferring that it should be 
 matured by consultation with his brethren, before 
 his opinions were made known to the entire body.
 
 112 INTERCOURSE WITH THE ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 He stood so high in the opinion of the 
 aristocracy of the country, that he might have 
 obtained any thing to which good sense would 
 allow him to aspire ; but he considered the greatest 
 honour to arise from power in his art, and in- 
 tegrity of character. He was not of any party, nor 
 had any party spirit, and stood equally in the 
 esteem of such distinguished political characters 
 as Sir Robert Peel and Lord Leicester, both 
 lovers of the arts, and both contributors to their 
 success ; the former, in particular, has evinced by 
 patronage and encouragement his friendly feeling 
 towards the professors of all classes, and by his 
 advocacy of all public measures tending to their 
 promotion and profit. 
 
 A great compliment and mark of esteem was 
 paid to Chantrey by that excellent, intelligent, 
 and most hospitable baronet, the late Sir Francis 
 Freeling ; when the latter learned from the 
 sculptor the time of his first arrival in London to
 
 ROYAL PATRONAGE. 113 
 
 try his fortune as an artist, Sir Francis ever after 
 kept the anniversary of that day with some fes- 
 tivity. Chantrey, Lady Chantrey, and other 
 mutual friends, assembled at the table of the 
 Secretary of the Post Office, cheerful from the 
 unbounded kindness of the host, and of guests 
 distinguished for talents and generous qualities. 
 
 From three Sovereigns he received great atten- 
 tion ; George the Fourth evinced an affability 
 towards him, which he often mentioned with 
 pleasure. 
 
 Chantrey, in conversing with Sir Henry 
 Russell, remarked that the king was a great 
 master of that first proof of good breeding, 
 which consists in putting every one at their 
 ease; for from the throne each word and 
 gesture has its effect. The first day the king 
 said, "Now, Mr. Chantrey, I insist upon your 
 laying aside every thing like restraint, both for 
 your own sake and for mine; do here, if you
 
 114 ANECDOTE OF GEORGE THE FOURTH. 
 
 please, just as you would if you were at home." 
 While he was preparing the clay, the king, who 
 continued standing near him, suddenly took off 
 his wig, and holding it out at arm's length, said, 
 "Now, Mr. Chantrey, which way shall it be, 
 with the wig or without it ? " as he did not say 
 what answer he had given, Sir H.' Russell asked 
 him. " 'Oh ! with the wig, if you please, Sir/ It 
 was my business," he continued, " to exhibit the 
 king as he was known; every body was accustomed 
 to see him with his wig, and nobody would have 
 known him without it." It was evident also that 
 Chantrey saw how it would be agreeable to the 
 king to be represented, and he had the good 
 sense, and the good manners, to act according 
 to his Majesty's inclination. 
 
 When George the Fourth was sitting to Chan- 
 trey, he required the sculptor to give him the 
 idea of an equestrian statue to commemorate 
 him, which Chantrey accomplished at a succeeding
 
 STATUE OF GEORGE THE FOURTH. 115 
 
 interview, by placing in the Sovereign's hand a 
 number of small equestrian figures, drawn care- 
 fully on thick paper, and resembling in number 
 and material a pack of cards; these sketches 
 pleased the king very much, who turned them 
 over and over, expressing his surprise that such 
 a variety could be produced ; and after a thousand 
 fluctuations of opinion, sometimes for a prancing 
 steed, sometimes for a trotter, then for a neighing 
 or a starting charger, his Majesty at length resolved 
 on a horse standing still, as the most dignified for 
 a king. Chantrey probably led to this, as he was 
 decidedly in favour of the four legs being on the 
 ground; he had a quiet and reasonable manner 
 of convincing persons of the propriety of that, 
 which from reflection he judged to be preferable. 
 
 Chantrey's friend, Lord Egremont, was of the 
 same opinion, for in writing to the sculptor, he 
 said, "I am glad your horse is not walking off 
 his pedestal, which would be more like a donkey
 
 116 ATTITUDE OF THE HORSE. 
 
 than a sensible horse/' Chantrey wished in this 
 instance for a quiet or standing horse ; but he 
 determined, if he ever executed another eques- 
 trian portrait, to represent the horse in the act 
 of pawing, not from the conviction of its being 
 a better attitude, but for the sake of variety, and 
 to convince the public that he could do the one 
 as well as the other, for whenever his works were 
 censured, it always was for heaviness, or want of 
 action, which is rather surprising considering the 
 energetic and speaking statue of Grattan. 
 
 When he had executed and erected the statue 
 of George the Fourth,* on the staircase at 
 Windsor, the king good-naturedly patted the 
 sculptor on the shoulder, and said, " Chantrey, I 
 
 * This statue was erected at Windsor, in April, 1835, and the 
 following memorandum is found in Chantrey's hand-writing : 
 " Erected the statue of George IV. on the Grand Staircase in 
 Windsor Castle. This place, in an architectural point of view, 
 is splendid, but the h'ght is bad very bad. The architect is 
 
 delighted I am miserable ." The situation for which the 
 
 statue was executed remains unoccupied.
 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR ATTITUDES. 117 
 
 have reason to be obliged to you, for you have im- 
 mortalised me;" * and this was said with reason, 
 for in defiance of all difficulties attendant on the 
 representation of royal robes in sculpture, that 
 statue developes an appearance dignified and 
 graceful, without being encumbered by the deco- 
 ration of royal habiliments. 
 
 The most accidental circumstance gave him an 
 idea of a natural attitude for a statue, and that 
 of Bishop Heber rising with a book in his hand 
 was suggested by seeing a person rise from a 
 chair, in his library. He instantly made a memo- 
 randum of the position, which served as the 
 model for that able work. 
 
 In talking of British sculptors in Rome, and 
 the advantage of working in that capital, 
 Chantrey told Lord Farnborough that, if he went 
 and executed his commissions in Rome, they 
 
 * " Principibus placuisse viris, non ultima laus est." Hon. 
 Epist. lib. i., ep. 17.
 
 118 INCREASE OF COMMISSIONS. 
 
 would be thought meritorious from their mag- 
 nitude and number, and from the confidence 
 reposed in his ability; but if he remained in 
 London, they would be less estimated, and lose 
 the charm of being executed in the capital of 
 the world.* 
 
 Between the years 1823 and 1836, Chantrey 
 received the greatest number of commissions; 
 he laboured continually in his art, whilst he was 
 efficiently assisted in the correspondence and 
 arrangements relative to it, by Mr. Cunningham 
 (the author of "The Life of Wilkie," and many 
 popular works), who unfortunately did not long 
 survive the sculptor. 
 
 William the Fourth treated Chantrey as a 
 friend ; he enjoyed the confidence and continued 
 
 * " Most men unjust to the present times, hang upon antiquity." 
 LORD BACON. 
 
 " Parmy les conditions humaines, celle-cy est commune, de 
 nous plaire plus des choses trangeres que des notres." 
 MONTAIGNE, 1. iii. c. 9.
 
 PATEONAGE OF WILLIAM THE FOUE.TH. 119 
 
 hospitality of that monarch. Six weeks after he 
 came to the throne, his Majesty sent for Chantrey, 
 and told him he wished to consult him upon 
 a matter of deep interest to him as a father, 
 observing, that, amidst the duties of royalty, he 
 must not omit a duty to the mother of his 
 children. Nothing could exceed the good feeling 
 and good taste which the king evinced on the 
 subject : he desired the sculptor to execute 
 a handsome and appropriate monument to a 
 kind and affectionate mother, and distinguished 
 genius. 
 
 The King dwelt on Mrs. Jordan's amiable 
 qualities till he burst into tears. Chantrey, not 
 having known her, asked what was her charac- 
 teristic trait, and was answered, that she 
 was most distinguished by her maternal affec- 
 tion, which the sculptor commemorated by a 
 figure of a beautiful mother surrounded by her 
 children.
 
 120 MONUMENT TO NAPOLEON. 
 
 Among other projects to which Chantrey was 
 privy, he remembered, with pleasure, many con- 
 versations with this monarch respecting a mo- 
 nument to Napoleon, which his Majesty was 
 solicitous to raise at St. Helena, whenever he 
 might have the means to defray the expense ; and 
 numerous were the plans suggested on both sides, 
 for the Sovereign was as fertile in projects as 
 the artist, and if the King's career had been 
 prolonged, some work would have been pro- 
 duced creditable to the country and the royal 
 projector. 
 
 Her present Majesty employed Chantrey, and 
 her accustomed gracious courtesy, during the 
 short period he lived under her reign, was most 
 gratifying to his feelings, particularly during his 
 declining health; and after his decease, her 
 gracious Majesty was not unmindful of kind and 
 nattering attention to his widow. 
 
 His intimacy with Lord Egremont was confiding
 
 VISIT TO LORD EGREMONT. 121 
 
 and generous on both sides, without reserve, and 
 free from restraint in every particular; he saw 
 the sculptor at all times and in all places, at the 
 festive table, in the library, and even in his 
 bed-room; he consulted him on his projects in 
 adorning his house, and he assisted in arranging 
 that room, in which there are two pictures, by 
 Jones, of the battles of Vittoria and Waterloo, 
 with the bust of the Duke of Wellington between 
 them. When the Earl asked him about the best 
 light for the pictures, he told the kind peer that 
 the most favourable was occupied by three large 
 whole-length portraits, fixed in the panels ; upon 
 which his lordship said, " Well, I will put them 
 there, and your bust of the Duke in the centre/' 
 Chantrey then observed that the three portraits 
 must in that case be removed. "No," said the 
 Earl, I have no place for them." " What then is 
 to be done ? " was the natural question ; to which 
 the Earl answered, " I will cut off their legs, I do
 
 122 DECORATIONS AT PETWORTH. 
 
 not want their petticoats ; their heads shall be 
 placed in three small panels above, and the 
 battles with the marble bust of the Duke shall 
 be placed below them ; " and this was done. 
 
 "\Vhen Turner painted a series of landscapes 
 at Petworth, for the dining-room, he worked 
 with his door locked against everybody but the 
 master of the house. Chantrey was there at the 
 time, and determined to see what Turner was 
 doing ; he imitated Lord Egremont's peculiar 
 step, and the two distinct raps on the door by 
 which his lordship was accustomed to announce 
 himself; and the key being immediately turned, 
 he slipped into the room before the artist could 
 shut him out, which joke was mutually enjoyed 
 by the two attached friends. 
 
 It may not be improper to remark, that while 
 many of our countrymen were showering com- 
 missions on Canova for statues and groups of 
 Gods and Goddesses, Flaxman, whose taste was
 
 DISTINGUISHED FRIENDSHIPS. 123 
 
 predominant in all the highest qualities of art, was 
 neglected; excepting by Lord Egremont, for this 
 nobleman never thought the less .of an artist 
 because he was born in the ungenial clime of 
 Britain. 
 
 Among Chantrey's private and more domestic 
 friends may be named nearly all distinguished 
 in those acquirements which elevate the character 
 of man. The philosopher, the statesman, the poet, 
 and the artist, were all included, and constantly 
 graced his liberal board ; so that intelligence was 
 diffused during the enjoyment of social and fes- 
 tive intercourse. His expenditure was consider- 
 able, and liberal in the extreme, yet conducted 
 with great judgment and economy by Lady 
 Chantrey, whose desire to preserve the power 
 of being hospitable was evinced by her circum- 
 spection in domestic arrangements. 
 
 Among his Academic friends, the names of 
 Shee, Turner, Thomson, Howard, Phillips, Callcott, 
 
 G2
 
 124 ACADEMIC FRIENDS. 
 
 Wilkie, Smirke, Westmacott, Mulready, Chalon, 
 Jackson, Hilton, Wyatville, Jones, Leslie, 
 Pickersgill, Etty, Constable, Eastlake, Landseer, 
 Lee, Maclise, Hart, Witherington, Hardwick, and 
 others, were conspicuous : he lived on the most 
 friendly terms with all his brethren, and his 
 estimation of their respective talents was 
 accurate and elevated. 
 
 Turner, with some eccentricities in art, he 
 considered as a genius of the highest poetic cha- 
 racter, and the greatest of past or present 
 painters in producing light and atmosphere, 
 and the consummate arranger of beautiful out- 
 line in his combinations of landscape and 
 architecture. 
 
 In the years 1828 and 1837, Chantrey and 
 Turner were on the same council of the Royal 
 Academy ; they understood and appreciated 
 each other thoroughly, but Chantrey did not 
 spare his friend; he jocosely and facetiously
 
 TURNER'S LOCAL PORTRAITURES. 125 
 
 criticised his pictures to their author, yet in the 
 painter's absence he spoke of them in terms of 
 the highest admiration. While examining the 
 works sent for exhibition, a drawing of " The 
 Falls of Terni " came under notice, which Turner 
 declared was a copy from his drawing of the same 
 scene. Howard, the secretary, said, "Perhaps 
 the artist has been to the same spot from which 
 your view was taken, and thus made his drawing 
 similar to yours without having seen it." 
 "No, no," said Chantrey, "if the artist had 
 ever been there, his drawing would not be like 
 Turner's;" inferring that Turner's are not ela- 
 borate portraitures of any place, but pictures 
 containing all of importance that the view 
 exhibits; whilst all the unimportant parts are 
 reduced to insignificance, by effect, or other 
 means ; yet, from the leading objects, no local 
 representation by his hand can be mistaken. 
 On one of the varnishing days, the weather
 
 126 ESTEEM FOE BROTHER ARTISTS. 
 
 being cold, Chantrey went up to a picture, by 
 Turner, in which orange chrome was unusually 
 conspicuous, and affecting to warm his hands 
 before it, said, " Turner, this is the only com- 
 fortable place in the room. Is it true, as I have 
 heard, that you have a commission to paint a 
 picture for the Sun Fire Office ? " 
 
 The elegant and poetic art of Thomson, the 
 vigorous portraits by Shee, the careful and beau- 
 tiful pictures of Callcott, as well as the tran- 
 scendent talents of Wilkie, Mulready, Leslie, 
 Landseer, and others, too numerous to name, 
 called for his esteem and approbation. The 
 distinguished portrait painters of England, he 
 thought, deserved the highest credit, for having 
 carried their branch of art farther than the 
 artists of any other country. 
 
 He was liberal to all his professional brethren, 
 and often encouraged their efforts by purchasing 
 their productions; and he intended to increase
 
 LIBERALITY AND CHARITY. 127 
 
 his collection of modern works as his funds 
 improved. Never did a man deserve wealth more 
 than the sculptor ; for his liberality and charity, 
 especially to the profession, were unbounded; 
 he sought all occasions to be kind; and as he 
 refused no supplication, he was too often the 
 victim of fraud and duplicity. He has been known 
 to bestow from one to four hundred pounds at a 
 time on individuals he deemed worthy, and less 
 prosperous than himself, and the needy or sup- 
 pliant never left him unrelieved. 
 
 A pretended sculptor in distress, from Bor- 
 deaux, solicited his subscription, in aid of his 
 return to his native place. Chantrey was 
 compassionate, and listened without suspicion 
 to a melancholy story of a pregnant wife, her 
 sickness, a starving child, and other distresses; 
 he relieved the applicant, and gave him 
 enough to defray the expense of returning to 
 Bordeaux. The pretender placed Chantrey's name
 
 128 LIABILITY TO IMPOSITION. 
 
 on a petition he had prepared, as a contributor 
 of one guinea; which petition he earned about 
 to other artists, and thus obtained a consi- 
 derable amount. In a year or two afterwards 
 it came out that Chantrey's judgment had 
 yielded to his heart, and that he had given the 
 impostor a cheque on his banker for the whole 
 sum required for his return to Bordeaux; thus 
 hoping to prevent a brother sculptor from the 
 humiliating task of applying to the profession 
 as a beggar. Too numerous for the honour 
 of mankind were the examples of this nature, 
 but the kind-hearted and jocose sculptor gene- 
 rally laughed at his own credulity, whilst he 
 regretted the duplicity to which he had so often 
 succumbed. 
 
 An intimate friend of his visited Rome some 
 years ago, and as his means of expenditure 
 were very limited, Chantrey thought his want of 
 money might preclude him from the extent of
 
 GENEKOSITY TO A FRIEND. 129 
 
 information he might wish to acquire by travel 
 and research ; the sculptor adopted the following 
 mode to prevent that deficiency : 
 
 His friend received a visit, whilst in Rome, 
 from one of the firm of Torlonia, by whom he 
 was advised to purchase objects of antiquity and 
 art. These suggestions, from a banker, surprised 
 the traveller, who frankly confessed that if he had 
 the inclination, he had not the supplies requisite 
 for such purposes ; on which the banker told him 
 that he might draw on their house for one thou- 
 sand pounds. This seemed quite a mistake, until 
 after some discussion respecting the offer, the 
 denial of such credit by the artist, and the affirm- 
 ation of its existence by the banker, it appeared 
 that Chantrey had placed that sum in the hands 
 of Torlonia for the express and entire use of his 
 friend. 
 
 No one who knew him intimately could 
 have a slender affection for the man; this 
 
 63
 
 130 GENEROSITY TO A FRIEXD. 
 
 act of friendhsip was deeply felt ; and the 
 traveller, to prove his willingness to be obliged, 
 drew one hundred pounds. But here the matter 
 did not end : the artist had entrusted to the care 
 of the sculptor a collection of his own drawings, 
 which Chantrey showed to the Duke of Sussex, 
 to amuse his Royal Highness whilst he was 
 sitting for his bust, as well as to exhibit the 
 talent of his friend; and in a letter to Rome, 
 he tells him this circumstance, adding, "I 
 am sure the Duke will buy some of your 
 works." 
 
 Time passed; the traveller returned, and has- 
 tened to see his friend, and gratefully to pay 
 his pecuniary obligation ; which, when Chantrey 
 learned was a hundred pounds, he said, " No, 
 keep it ; I am five pounds in your debt, for the 
 Duke has taken four of your drawings at twenty- 
 five guineas each." This was well : and time 
 passed for many, yet too few years; for at the
 
 PRACTICAL JOKES. 131 
 
 death of the kind-hearted, the generous Chantrey, 
 the drawings which the artist was led to believe 
 were in the hands of his Royal Highness, were 
 found hidden among Chantrey's private papers, 
 while the story was unknown to any one ; 
 and Lady Chantrey has the drawings among 
 the innumerable testimonies of her husband's 
 generosity. 
 
 Constable, in a letter to a friend describing the 
 varnishing days previous to the exhibition of 
 1826, writes: "Chantrey loves painting, and is 
 always up stairs ; he works now and then on my 
 pictures : yesterday he joined our group, and 
 after exhausting his jokes on my landscape, he 
 took up a dirty palette, threw it at me, and 
 was off." 
 
 Some years after this, he was seen to glaze the 
 foreground of Constable's picture of " Hadleigh 
 Castle " with asphaltum ; and the artist, with 
 some anxiety, said, loud enough for Chantrey to
 
 132 SHREWD REPLY. 
 
 hear him, " There goes all my dew/' A by- 
 stander asked the sculptor if he would allow 
 Constable to use the chisel upon one of his busts ; 
 and he replied u Yes." The cases, however, were 
 not parallel, as the asphaltum could be, as in- 
 deed it was, removed by Constable from the 
 picture. 
 
 At a public dinner where his health had been 
 drunk, Constable told him that he should have 
 made a speech, instead of merely returning 
 thanks ; when Chantrey replied, " How many 
 persons do you think were in the room who 
 thought me a fool for not speaking? and how 
 many would have thought me a fool if I had 
 spoken ? " * 
 
 The sculptor's jokes with Turner, during the 
 preparation for the exhibition, were continual. 
 He heard that the great artist was using some 
 
 * The editor is indebted to his friend Mr. Leslie for these 
 Anecdotes.
 
 TURNER AND LAWRENCE. 133 
 
 water-colour; he went up to his picture of 
 " Cologne," and drew with a wet finger a great 
 cross on the sail of a vessel, when, to his regret 
 and surprise, he found that he had removed a 
 considerable quantity of glazing colour. How- 
 ever, Turner was not discomposed, and only 
 laughed at the temerity of the sculptor, and 
 repaired the mischief. 
 
 It is but just to observe that the magnanimity 
 and the generosity of the landscape painter 
 could go much farther than mere toleration, for 
 the splendour of the picture just alluded to, 
 neutralised some colour and beautiful work in 
 portraits that hung on each side of it, painted 
 by Sir Thomas Lawrence. This naturally dis- 
 composed that sensitive and admirable artist, 
 but he refrained from any expression beyond 
 applause of Turner's power : however, the latter 
 discovered that Lawrence thought his pictures 
 were materially injured in effect by the contrast,
 
 134 ANECDOTE OF TUENER. 
 
 and with an unparalleled self-sacrifice, passed an 
 obscuring tint in water-colour over his whole 
 picture, thus relieving the great portrait painter 
 from some mortification. 
 
 Another generous action may be quoted of 
 Turner, of a similar character; for he wished a 
 change to be made, and the place occupied by 
 a picture of his to be given to a painting by 
 a friend, much less advantageously situated ; 
 but the rules of the Royal Academy did not 
 permit this or any other removal after the 
 arrangement. 
 
 Northcote left a sum in his will for a monu- 
 ment to himself, to be executed by Chantrey. 
 On the sculptor being asked what the monument 
 was to be, he replied, " It is left entirely to me ; 
 I may make merely a tablet if I choose ; the 
 money is too much for a bust, and not enough 
 for a statue ; but I love to be treated with confi- 
 dence, and I shall make a statue and do my
 
 LETTER FROM THOMSON. 135 
 
 best." And probably Chantrey never executed 
 anything more characteristic, or more like, than 
 the face and figure of Northcote ; for every one 
 to whom that painter was known started at the 
 resemblance, and the work only wanted colour 
 to make the spectator believe that he saw the 
 veteran artist in his studio. 
 
 He retained and improved all his friendships 
 until his death, and neither time nor absence 
 ever effected a change, as the following letter will 
 in some measure prove; it is from his friend 
 Thomson, whose departure from London the 
 sculptor always regretted extremely, for there 
 was much that was congenial in their natures, 
 free, generous, and confiding : 
 
 PORTSMOUTH, 13th July, 1828. 
 
 MY DEAR CHANTREY, 
 
 I received your letter in due time 
 yesterday, and the gun in the evening. The
 
 136 LETTER FROM THOMSON. 
 
 opening of the case excited a varied emotion of 
 a laugh and a cry. Luff, who helped me to un- 
 pack it, was all admiration, which you will readily 
 believe I joined in ; but when he observed, " This 
 looks like snuff, Sir; is it not?" I confess I 
 was overset, I could not help it, it recalled many 
 associations ! But no more of that. And now 
 let me tell you, that the Purday appears to be 
 everything I could wish, and I am certain is 
 every thing you describe; but I really never 
 could have conceived that I was employing you 
 so earnestly upon a job which was to prove a 
 considerable expense and trouble to you ! Am I 
 to understand that you expect me to receive it 
 from you as a present ? Do not suppose that I am 
 too proud to lie under an obligation to a friend 
 (I am under many to you), but I should never 
 forgive myself, if, by any expression of mine, I 
 could have led you to imagine that I was desirous 
 of imposing on your kindness. I wished to profit
 
 LETTER FEOM THOMSON. 137 
 
 by your perfect acquaintance with these matters, 
 and by the superior advantage you possessed over 
 me in opportunities of selecting for me what I 
 would, without any examination, have taken im- 
 plicitly upon your recommendation, and would 
 have repaid you for your trouble with my grati- 
 tude, and your expenses with ready money. This 
 was my wish and intention ; but if I am to under- 
 stand literally your request, that I am to accept 
 from you one of the best guns Pur day ever 
 made, whatever may be my embarrassment 
 through such unexpected kindness, I can only 
 frankly say, that as I am convinced it was offered 
 with unaffected sincerity, it will be quite impos- 
 sible for me to hurt your affectionate attentive 
 feelings by a refusal. Depend upon it, if not 
 for my own sake, I will treasure it for yours ; it 
 shall run no risk of being lost overboard; and 
 I will murder puffins, razorbills, gulls, and divers, 
 with a more ignoble instrument. I would
 
 138 LETTER FROM THOMSON. 
 
 endeavour to say more, but I hope that is 
 enough. 
 
 The tone of the latter part of your letter is very 
 unlike yourself! That I, with my disposition 
 and constitution, should be dejected humbled, if 
 you will, is quite natural; but that you, with 
 your bustling, elastic activity, knowledge of the 
 world, and ability, as well as dexterity to en- 
 counter and defeat humbug, should confess 
 humiliation, rather surprises me; but it won't 
 hurt you ! However, it serves to confirm me 
 in the wisdom of my decisions ; for I am certain 
 that I must sink where you are unable to swim ! 
 My time for repentance is not yet arrived, and I 
 hope never will overtake me. I became a solitary 
 being from necessity, not choice ; solitude is now 
 no longer a punishment to me, and I feel in my 
 retirement a degree of independence, which 
 leaves me little to desire, and a portion of con- 
 comitant happiness, which a sophisticated cockney
 
 LETTER FROM THOMSON. 139 
 
 would only mention with contempt. I could 
 tell him to his confusion, that I am surrounded 
 by kind, affectionate, and comparatively natural 
 beings, who still possess the feelings of humanity; 
 who do as they would be done by, and who, 
 treated with kindness, repay civility with grati- 
 tude. I can live on half my income, and I have 
 half-a-hundred smiling faces contending for 
 priority in my estimation ; my least wish is 
 complied with, and generally anticipated. My 
 resources are abundant, and hitherto I have 
 not experienced a melancholy hour. God send 
 it may continue, and I hear you say Amen. The 
 state of society in London is like the Moorfields' 
 furniture, as beautiful as brass, veneer, and var- 
 nish can make it, but within all is sap and putty. 
 It will not bear cleaning when dirty, and if you 
 require rest or repose, you have neither an arm 
 nor a leg that you can depend upon. Here, at 
 least, the good oak tables are sound, and the
 
 140 LETTER FROM THOMSON. 
 
 chairs would support a house. I have old 
 friends and old faces around me ; my steady 
 affectionate Mr. Chamberlayne is within two 
 hours' sail of me, and he alone is worth all Lon- 
 don. I see him often. I Avill not, however, 
 allow it to be supposed that I have not left 
 behind me some whom I sincerely regard, but 
 not enough to save Nineveh ; the few, whom I 
 do love, I keep in my heart of hearts, and if 
 ever fortune should bring them within my atmo- 
 sphere, they will soon experience the sincerity of 
 my feelings. I am delighted to find that dear 
 Little'n is well ; give my affectionate regards 
 to her, and every kind remembrance to Tarley ; 
 I have just taken a pinch of his Martinique and 
 Brown Hamburgh to his health : it was quite 
 delicious, and the toast has imparted to it a 
 double relish and improved flavour. Best re- 
 gards to old Turner; his little picture hangs 
 over my sofa, and I look at it every day with
 
 EPISTOLARY CARICATURES. 141 
 
 increased pleasure. I am now going to scribble 
 a few lines to Jones. 
 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 TOMPY.* 
 
 I never saw so beautiful a piece of cutlery as 
 the knife you enclosed in the gun-case. 
 
 Thomson on one occasion, in writing to 
 Chantrey, headed his address by sticking a large 
 red wafer on the paper, and drawing thereon, 
 eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, which, however 
 ridiculous, from the just arrangement of the 
 features and the proportions, gave a lively cari- 
 cature of the rubicund face of the sculptor. 
 Chantrey used to show this with great delight, 
 and often, instead of signing a jocose and merry 
 letter, would stick a wafer with the features 
 delineated by his own hand. 
 
 Before he built his second house, or rather 
 
 * This was Thomson's familiar mode of subscribing himself.
 
 142 RECEPTION OF FRIENDS. 
 
 reconstructed his first, he was accustomed to sit 
 in a small room near the entrance from the street, 
 and in communication with the studio ; in this 
 apartment he was accessible to his friends, 
 and to persons on business ; it -was much too 
 small for his purpose, but in it were his books 
 of business, maps, a few literary works, and 
 some of his beautiful sketches in clay. When 
 not at work in his studio, he occupied himself 
 here, and, on the entrance of his friends, the 
 cheerful smile of recognition brightened his ex- 
 pressive features, and the visitor always felt 
 that he was cordially welcome, for in the mouth 
 of the sculptor was an expression that no one 
 could mistake, or misinterpret; it was probably 
 the most flexible index that ever graced a human 
 face ; it was little susceptible of control ; of deceit 
 or guile it was incapable. 
 
 When the new building was completed, he 
 stood with a friend on the house-top, and sur-
 
 REFLECTIONS. 143 
 
 veyed the whole, saying, "Now this is done, at 
 an expense little short of twenty thousand 
 pounds, and what may be the result ? what my 
 future career ? Will health be permanent : my 
 employment be continued : will public favour 
 last : will my faculties remain : may I not be 
 superseded by brighter spirits, or by greater 
 favourites with the world ? Such changes I have 
 seen, and am I not liable to the like ? 
 
 These were the sculptor's reflections ; and 
 such thoughts on the mutability of worldly 
 affairs constantly prevailed amid a career of 
 enviable fortune. 
 
 In the new arrangement, he had an excellent 
 room for a library, and for official business, in- 
 cluding also every convenience for dressing, so 
 that at all times he admitted and conversed 
 with his friends. In this room, sitting by the 
 fire in his easy chair, commodious for writing or 
 reading, close to his desk, Chantrey received
 
 144 NATURAL PIETY. 
 
 the dignified and scientific of the land, ready to 
 listen to the requests and inquiries of all; also 
 to give advice and offer opinions on the most 
 serious or the most trifling matters ; his attention 
 was always ready, his observations reasonable, 
 and often mixed with facetiousness. 
 
 He avoided controversy and dispute, though 
 he was a profound thinker, for the works of the 
 creation were so continually under his view in 
 their physical development, that they engaged his 
 intense, though quiet consideration. Every object 
 he referred to the Creator of all, and admired 
 without limit the works of the Great Artificer, 
 from the smallest leaf to the noblest production, 
 and, in his mundane calling, aimed at an imita- 
 tion of that excellence of beauty which nature has 
 displayed. No one could be more sensible of the 
 inferiority of imitation, or more grateful for the 
 judgment which enabled him to discriminate be- 
 tween the works of superhuman and human power.
 
 HUMOKOUS INTRODUCTIONS. 145 
 
 Those who have seen Chantrey sitting by his 
 fire, and twirling his snuff-box, whilst engaged in 
 thought, will remember the cheerful smile and the 
 ready dismissal of business at the approach of a 
 friend; the first salutation generally was "A 
 pinch of snuff?" presenting his box; his next was, 
 if he were disengaged, " You will dine here 
 to-day ; " these frequent and hospitable occur- 
 rences produced the most agreeable meetings. 
 
 He loved a joke, and was quick to profit by, 
 or invent one ; his introductions of one friend 
 to another were often very odd and ridiculous. 
 Mr. Utterson went one morning into the sculp- 
 tor's library, and found him in conversation 
 with the architect who restored and added to 
 Windsor Castle, to whom Chantrey introduced 
 Mr. Utterson in this manner : " Mr. Utterson 
 Sir Jeffrey Wyattville, K.C.B., King's Castle 
 Builder; or, King's Cottage Builder, which you 
 will ! ! ! " This happened in the reign of George
 
 146 REGARD FOR FRIENDS. 
 
 the Fourth, for whom Wyattville built a cottage 
 in Windsor Park. 
 
 With Lady Chantrey, he called one morning 
 on a female friend lately arrived in London, 
 and improved in health and enbonpoint ; on 
 seeing her, Chantrey exclaimed, "Dear lady, 
 why you are now all circles," and he sat down, 
 and with a pen drew out a complication of 
 circles, indicative of feminine beauty, with 
 enbonpoint. 
 
 The original, and sometimes ludicrous, yet 
 affectionate demonstration of regard for his 
 friends, cannot be appreciated by those whose 
 intimacy or opportunity did not call it forth. 
 Amongst other singular modes of testimony of 
 regard to a particular friend, whose presence 
 gave him pleasure, was the following : whenever 
 he hired a fresh servant, on the arrival of this 
 friend, he was accustomed to call this servant 
 into his library, then desire his friend to stand
 
 DRAMATIC REPRESENTATION. 147 
 
 up ; he then said to the servant, " Look at that 
 gentleman well, examine him well; will you know 
 him again ? " By all these questions, the servant 
 may be supposed to be embarrassed, yet, of 
 course, he answered in the affirmative, and on 
 such an acknowledgment, Chantrey would say : 
 " Well, sir, if you know him, and can recollect 
 him, admit him to me whenever he presents 
 himself." 
 
 His disposition .to create mirth carried him 
 even to dramatic representation, for, on one 
 occasion, at a great dinner party which he gave, 
 Lady Chantrey apologised for Sir Francis not 
 being present when numerous visitors arrived; 
 at last one was announced with more than ordi- 
 nary ceremony, and a jolly ecclesiastic appeared, 
 in gown and cassock, with a fashionable wig 
 belonging to a distinguished character then sit- 
 ting to Chantrey. So unusual an appearance in 
 
 familiar society surprised many, and set them to 
 
 ii 2
 
 148 LOVE OF FIELD SPORTS. 
 
 think how this stranger could appear in a sacer- 
 dotal dress, unless just returned from some clerical 
 duty, for the character was so well supported, and 
 the voice so admirably disguised, that, until the 
 penetrating eye of Lady Callcott detected the 
 impostor, no one supposed that it was the sculptor 
 himself who personified the dignitary of the 
 Church. 
 
 Fond of field sports, he enjoyed exercise, 
 and delighted in the company that associated 
 for the amusement, hut his sporting was always 
 so tempered with mercy, that it never allowed 
 any game to suffer unnecessarily; in fishing, he 
 always killed the trout he took with the ivory rule 
 which he carried in his pocket, for the purposes of 
 art. In writing from Holkham, and describing 
 a day of battue, he stated that he had killed thirty 
 pheasants and twenty hares, with the remark, 
 that, when the produce of his sport was cast at his 
 feet, he felt sick at the destruction his success
 
 THE HOUGHTON FISHING-CLUB. 149 
 
 had occasioned. He was a good sportsman, and 
 in that pursuit, as in every other, he was directed 
 by the sound sense which guided him in every- 
 thing he undertook, and he never attempted 
 anything in which his success was not 
 conspicuous. 
 
 The Houghton Fishing-Club afforded him 
 great delight: he aided its progress, added to 
 its comfort, hilarity, and sport : his skill pleased 
 some, and his good humour all, an abun- 
 dance of fun that might give pleasure to the 
 most juvenile, and not be distasteful to the more 
 grave and reflective. His associates in that 
 friendly union were like himself, and whoever 
 has enjoyed their hospitality must reflect with 
 pleasure on such a unity of kind feeling in a 
 society which sought to promote each other's 
 pleasure, and found no satisfaction so great as 
 to contribute to mutual content. Their diet 
 certainly was not of the most primitive kind, for
 
 150 SPORTING ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 their dishes and wine indicated a choice selection, 
 yet their rural banquets never degenerated to 
 excess. 
 
 A book is kept by the society, of most amusing 
 records, and embellished with graphic examples 
 of talent, and among them some precious pieces 
 from the hand of the sculptor. In fine weather, 
 a tent on the margin of the river Test afforded 
 them rest and social intercourse, with refresh- 
 ment ; when the season was unfavourable, a 
 good though humble inn at Stockbridge furnished 
 the party with all that sportsmen could desire ; 
 and thus, far from the trammels of the fashion- 
 able world, these literary and scientific men in- 
 dulged in a rational intercourse, enjoyed a 
 healthful amusement in the open air, and re- 
 freshed themselves after severe application in 
 their respective pursuits. 
 
 The following letter, from Dr. Wollaston, will 
 show the familiar, jocular, and agreeable commu-
 
 LETTER FROM WOLLASTON. 151 
 
 nication that existed among the members of this 
 cheerful and happy society : 
 
 1, DORSET PLACE, MANCHESTER SQUARE, 
 Monday, 1828. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 I regretted much not having been at 
 home to answer direct questions directly ! Will 
 I go to Stockbridge on Sunday ? Ans. Yes ; I 
 will. How ? Ans. With you, any how, i. e., by 
 coach or by chaise, direct, or indirect. If by 
 chaise, shall I bring one to your door at any 
 given hour? I rely upon you to direct 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 W. H. WOLLASTON. 
 
 To FRANCIS CHANTREY, ESQ. 
 
 Such were the jocose letters and agreeable 
 repartee of these sportsmen. On one occasion 
 Dr. Wollaston, when returning from one of the 
 fishing excursions, being met by the author as he 
 alighted from his carriage at Chantrey's door,
 
 152 ANECDOTE. 
 
 the natural question was, " Well,, doctor, what 
 have you killed ?" to which the doctor's ready 
 reply was, "A fortnight." 
 
 An invalid friend of Chantrey's visited him at 
 Stockbridge, on one of the fishing days, and the 
 sculptor determined that his visitor should enjoy 
 the sight of the sport, if he could not participate 
 from the fear of wet, over-exertion, or any of the 
 accidents incidental to the amusement. In order 
 that all the pleasure possible should be given to 
 his companion, and his health also secured, he 
 directed that a long and large pair of waterproof 
 boots should be produced from his portmanteau, 
 new from the maker, and these he insisted on 
 his friend's wearing. When remonstrance was 
 offered on the impossibility of doing so, for his 
 friend was booted with spurs fixed on the heels ; 
 nothing would satisfy him: the boots must be 
 pulled on, at which he assisted with a resolution 
 rendered as ridiculous as it was good-natured
 
 THE HOUGHTON FISHING-CLUB. 153 
 
 by the objurgations on dandy boots, and jokes, 
 .which relieved by their mirth the discomfiture of 
 the wearer when he heard the cracking and 
 destructive rents which the spurs were making in 
 the waterproof over-boots. But there was no 
 compunction, no delay, on Chantrey's part ; 
 the boots were forced on, and the equestrian 
 was taken to wade through water and wet grass 
 to the scene of action, and was shown all the 
 mysteries of the sport, introduced to a number 
 of agreeable persons, and partook of a dinner 
 which had little of rustic character except the 
 location and the canvas walls of a tent. 
 
 The mutual and friendly feeling of this Club 
 are admirably described by Mr. Bernard, one 
 of the members : 
 
 Houghton Fishing-Club, 16th July, 1829. 
 
 " For let it be here recorded that in this 
 
 Club the good example of Izaac Walton, our patron 
 
 H 3
 
 154 GOOD FELLOWSHIP OF THE CLUB. 
 
 saint, has been so invariably followed, that no 
 jealousy, no envying, no strife, no bickering, has 
 ever existed. The wish of an individual, whether 
 expressed or implied, has been the law of all. 
 The happiness of each other has been the com- 
 pass by which all have steered. No angry word, 
 no selfish feeling, has ever betrayed itself in our 
 enviable circle. .Every successive meeting has 
 been the means of uniting more firmly (if 
 possible) that friendship and good fellowship 
 which has manifested itself from the beginning, 
 which it has been t*he unalloyed satisfaction of 
 all to have experienced, and which with hearts so 
 constituted must remain unshaken. Our society 
 may be dissolved by circumstances over which we 
 have no control; but the friendship which our 
 meeting has established, and the remembrauce 
 of the many happy hours passed in the com- 
 pany of each other, can only terminate with our 
 existence."
 
 ATTENTION TO NATURE. 155 
 
 He was as indefatigable in his sports as in 
 his profession ; and as fowler or fisher, he 
 evinced a perseverance which ensured success ; at 
 the same time he took with him all the feeling of 
 an artist, for, on the winding banks of the 
 Test, no pleasing form, no accidental effect, 
 escaped him. The reflections in the water, the 
 ripple of the stream, the rustle of the leaves, 
 filled him with agreeable images and thoughts, 
 expressed at the moment to his companions 
 with simple sense and justice. Bad weather 
 never restrained him in his rural pastime ; and 
 so reckless was he of himself, and so con- 
 siderate for others, that he was seen in a heavy 
 shower of rain to take off his Macintosh cloak to 
 cover the saddle of a friend's horse, who casually 
 fell in with him while he was fishing, and had 
 dismounted for more easy conversation ; such was 
 always his friendly foresight. His carefulness 
 for the health and comfort of others was most
 
 156 MEMBERS OF THE FISHING-CLUB. 
 
 remarkable; to the sick it was most exemplary: he 
 was a sedulous nurse during Lady Chantrey's long 
 illness, and his assiduity and care for her conva- 
 lescence proved his affection and his judgment. 
 
 Always alive to a joke or contrivance for 
 amusement by getting the start of other sports- 
 men, on one occasion he was seen by a by- 
 stander to bait his hook with the living grey fly, 
 when all the members of the Club supposed them 
 not to be on the river, and Avere using the 
 artificial; but the sculptor had heard they were 
 to be found, and had despatched a man to 
 bring him some of the live bait, which he used 
 with success, whilst his companions were trying 
 their fortune with the artificial fly. 
 
 Among the members of the Houghton Club, 
 the following names were conspicuous : Earl of 
 Hardwicke, Lord Saltoun, Henry Warburton, 
 Edward Barnard, G. W. Norman, Sir Hussey 
 Vivian, Rev. F. Beadon, Francis Popham, Sir
 
 .FONDNESS FOR DOGS. 1.57 
 
 F. Chantrey, Colonel Mudge, Richard Penn, 
 John Jarrett, Dr. Wollaston. 
 
 Chantrey at all times evinced more eagerness 
 to join this party and partake in the amusement, 
 than to participate in the fashionable entertain- 
 ments of the metropolis, and he never expressed 
 any regret at leaving his studio for a sojourn at 
 Stockbridge. On other occasions he would com- 
 plain of the time lost in a popular life, and lament 
 the hours passed in the world which he might 
 have devoted to improvement; for, whilst the 
 fine works of ancient art were around him, he 
 longed for progress towards competition. 
 
 A great lover of dogs, he always had some ; 
 but two were most prized by him, the one a fine 
 pointer called Hector, liver-coloured and white, 
 and, in addition to perfect sagacity in sporting, 
 the most gentle and affectionate servant that ever 
 master had. 
 
 The other was a terrier of the Dandie Dinmout
 
 158 "HECTOR" AND "MUSTARD." 
 
 breed, presented to him by Sir Walter Scott. 
 This animal, called Mustard, was of the roughest 
 wiry kind when he came into Chantrey's posses- 
 sion ; but each succeeding year smoothed his coat 
 and increased his bulk, and he became a striking 
 example of the effects of luxury and repletion, 
 yet his obesity and indolence did not diminish 
 his devotion to his master and Lady Chantrey, 
 but entitled him to the indulgence he received, 
 and made him an object of favour to all his 
 master's friends. 
 
 The demeanour of these two dogs was very 
 dissimilar ; the first was a solicitous and obe- 
 dient dependant, whilst the latter was a despot 
 to his master and mistress. 
 
 Those who delight in the sagacity of animals 
 and of their projects may be amused by an 
 account of Chantrey's pointer bringing himself 
 into notice. A friend of his, to whom the dog 
 was attached, dined with a large party at the
 
 DEVOTION TO NATURAL HISTORY. 159 
 
 sculptor's house, and after the cloth was re- 
 moved, the dog placed himself beside this visitor, 
 and, in a short time, put his left fore-paw on his 
 knee ; after which, and at a considerable interval 
 of time, he raised his left hind-foot on to the 
 chair, and, in this most inconvenient position, 
 supported himself until he found means to 
 raise his whole body into the visitor's lap : the 
 whole was effected with the greatest quietness, 
 precision, adroitness, and modesty that can be 
 conceived. The loud and expressive burst of 
 admiration and laughter from the assembled 
 company had no effect upon the dog, for he 
 looked as gravely on the table as possible, with- 
 out the appearance of any desire beyond that 
 which he had obtained. 
 
 All branches of natural history were attractive 
 to the sculptor, and he enjoyed seeing, and 
 assisted in managing, the valuable collection 
 in the Zoological Gardens. The monkeys, in
 
 160 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
 
 particular, afforded him delight, and he evinced 
 great solicitude for their health at a time when 
 they suffered severely : many perished through 
 disease; but he persevered with others and 
 found a remedy. On Sundays, accompanied by 
 Lady Chantrey and some friend, he often passed 
 an hour or two in the gardens, and his sagacious 
 remarks on the habits and construction of the 
 animals were always instructive and amusing, 
 particularly when the developments of compara- 
 tive anatomy came under his observation, for he 
 never forgot his profession, nor failed to notice 
 anything that tended to its illustration. 
 
 His respect for, and admiration of, the Elgin 
 Marbles may be collected from the following 
 note, which the noble Earl would not have 
 written if he had not been sure of the advocacy 
 of the sculptor in favour of these marvellous 
 works. Of " The Ilyssus " Chantrey's esteem 
 was unbounded ; of the " Theseus " he would
 
 THE ELGIN MARBLES. 161 
 
 speak with the resolute conviction of its beauty, 
 that no one could doubt his sincerity, or his 
 judgment ; for he pointed out the grand lines 
 of form, the solid yet graceful development of 
 muscular strength, and the pulpy flesh-like 
 character given to the marble. The recumbent 
 females received his unqualified praise, from 
 the fleshy and palpable appearance of the 
 undraped parts. These works of antiquity he 
 considered of the highest class, and worthy to 
 be the standard of sculpture in the country. 
 His own works evince how much he had considered 
 the fleshy character, and how much he had en- 
 deavoured to improve by these examples of sculp- 
 ture rescued from destruction by the Earl of Elgin. 
 
 39, PARLIAMENT STREET, 14 Feb., 1817. 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 I have requested Lord Spencer to 
 call upon you, not only to see your own most
 
 162 LETTER FROM LORD ELGIN. 
 
 interesting performances, but particularly with a 
 view to the proceedings at the British Museum 
 to-morrow, when some decision may probably 
 be taken, as to the casts from the Elgin Marbles. 
 For I much wish that one so competent to 
 give a proper direction to any thing meant to 
 be of public utility, should have the best and 
 most impartial information. In this view I 
 would beg you to show Lord Spencer those 
 admirable casts which you brought from Paris, 
 pointing out the excellence both of the material 
 as prepared by Gessi, and of the work ; the mode 
 in which they are adapted to be detached in 
 pieces for the purpose of study, and a comparison 
 between them and ordinary casts. Lord Spencer 
 may perhaps also not be aware of the danger to 
 the original, and the inadequacy of plaster in parts 
 where wax alone should be used; nor of the 
 facilities granted in Paris to artists to take im- 
 pressions from any particular part of any
 
 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE. 163 
 
 sculpture, subject only to the obligation of 
 employing the artists appointed by the Museum. 
 Viewing the subject in the light you do, as one 
 that may be the means of disseminating good 
 taste, as well as improving operative artists, I 
 need make no apology for this application to you. 
 
 Believe me ever, dear Sir, 
 
 Your very faithful servant, 
 ELGIN. 
 
 To FRANCIS CHANTREY, ESQ. 
 
 A question one day arose at table, whether 
 painting or sculpture was the most difficult art, 
 and which required the most ability ? A sculp- 
 tor present, fairly enough, said what he could 
 for the superiority of the art he practised ; but 
 Chantrey, with the ingenuous honesty which 
 dictated all his observations, said to his neighbour 
 at the dinner ; " Do not believe him, for I have 
 tried them both ; " which he had done, and 
 with success ; for, whether in one or the other
 
 164 WOIIKS OF ROUBILLIAC. 
 
 art, his imagination never superseded his reason, 
 and, if he had a bias, it was towards the grand 
 in magnitude and simplicity. 
 
 If he made his figures large, plain, and even 
 heavy, yet he never fell into coarseness; if his 
 figures were at times cumbrous, it was a weight- 
 iness accompanied with dignity, and partook 
 more of the exaggerations of Michael Angelo 
 than of Rubens. 
 
 Chantrey esteemed highly the works of 
 Roubilliac; he admired his busts; and thought 
 the statue of " Newton," at Cambridge, of the 
 best character of portrait sculpture. The sim- 
 plicity of the figure, united with the apparent 
 intelligence and thought in the countenance, he 
 considered as quite satisfactory; and although 
 he generally disliked the imitation of any par- 
 ticular material in drapery, he was reconciled 
 to the College dress of the philosopher. 
 From its perfect arrangement, the imitation is
 
 MONUMENT TO LORD SHANNON. 165 
 
 so complete, that the person who shows the 
 statue at Cambridge always informs the visitors 
 that it only requires to be black to render it 
 a deception. 
 
 He was inclined to tolerate anything that 
 displayed ingenuity without violating possibility, 
 yet he could never endure such extraneous and 
 uninteresting matter as the shot, the barrel of 
 powder, and the bent chamber of a piece of 
 artillery in the monument to Lord Shannon, in 
 Walton Church, which, with much to commend 
 in the two figures, has a profusion of objects, and 
 a grey marble background, representing a tent, 
 altogether unnecessary, and derogatory to the 
 purity of sculpture. Still, Roubilliac was rich in 
 thought and reason, for, in his monument in 
 Westminster Abbey, where he has represented 
 Death as a skeleton, he felt that the thin and 
 meagre bones would be as offensive as imprac- 
 ticable ; therefore judiciously involved the greater
 
 166 MONUMENT TO BISHOP KURD. 
 
 part of the emblem in a shroud or drapery, 
 adding thereby to his allegory, and aiding his art. 
 However hostile this style may be to the simpli- 
 city of sculpture, the ability of the artist in the 
 conception and execution deserves high praise. 
 
 The beadle of "Worcester Cathedral informed 
 a friend of Chantrey's that, when the sculptor 
 was in that city, he always went to see the 
 monument to Bishop Hurd, by Roubilliac, and 
 remained a long time in intent observation of the 
 work, for he thought this artist's power over the 
 material surprising, though he disliked polishing 
 the marble. 
 
 He regretted that our churches and public 
 buildings, such as courts of justice, town halls, 
 and the rooms of societies, were not decorated 
 with pictures and statues, recording persons and 
 events, which might, by their example, be 
 valuable to the rising and future generations ; 
 this he considered the great use and duty of
 
 THE USES OF ART. 167 
 
 art, and admired the manner (but not the 
 means) in which the room of the Society of Arts, 
 at the Adelphi, was embellished by Barry. 
 Yet he did not undervalue those works which 
 were merely amusing, but in all cases he required 
 that they should be wrought with a desire to 
 carry on the art, and without prejudice in 
 favour of any style, but with an entire love of 
 truth, and the cultivation of the knowledge of 
 beauty. 
 
 He wished art to be highly appreciated, and 
 well rewarded, yet the former was still more in 
 his consideration than the latter. Although he 
 obtained good prices himself, and supported them 
 in others, he had an extreme disdain and abhor- 
 rence of sacrificing the honour of art to gain, by 
 undertaking works at a low price, and bestowing 
 upon them but little time or attention. He was 
 in the habit of asking persons what they intended 
 to expend on a monument, and then told the
 
 168 INFLUENCE OF THE PROFESSION. 
 
 party what could be done, by himself or others, 
 with justice and success ; but in all cases, and 
 whatever the quantity, the utmost exertion of the 
 artist should be given, for the sake of the ad- 
 vancement of art, as well as for the reputation 
 of the individual professor. And no man ever 
 strove with more zeal to sustain the honour- 
 able character of artists, as men calculated to 
 promote the cultivation of intellect, for the ad- 
 vancement of religion and morals; through 
 which he thought the state of society might be 
 much exalted. And for this reason he tried to 
 gain information on every science, courted the 
 company of experienced and literary men, and 
 endeavoured by the variety of his investiga- 
 tions to bring to the consideration of all, the 
 importance of even the most minute, as well as 
 the greatest, works of nature. 
 
 Probably there never was a man more unpre- 
 sumingly conscious of his power, or more
 
 CONSCIOUSNESS OF HIS OWN POWEB. 169 
 
 vigorous in exerting it; and by those to whom 
 he was well known, it may not be too much to 
 say, in the words of Cicero, " Quern neque 
 periculi tempestas, neque honoris aura, potuit 
 unquam de suo cursu, aut spe, aut metu, dimo- 
 vere." * 
 
 It may have been this consciousness of his 
 own power, and his resolute adherence to its 
 peculiar quality, that led to the single and com- 
 pact manner in which he wished to concentrate 
 his own abilities and the abilities of others, that 
 what they and he did, might be well done ; and 
 this gave him the determined expression which, 
 to persons (well instructed in a more general way, 
 but less competent in any particular pursuit,) 
 might have the appearance of an unpolished or 
 too confident habit. 
 
 He felt that he must rest on his predominant 
 talent in one pursuit, and on his conspicuous 
 
 * Cic. Pro P. Sextio, xlvii.
 
 170 VARIED ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 
 
 honesty and integrity, which he thought in- 
 compatible with the refinements of courtly and 
 fashionable intercourse, yet his heart was tender 
 in the extreme. His thought was constantly 
 fixed on how he had risen, and how affluent he 
 was, compared to others, and his sensibility and 
 gratitude for the favours of fortune were his 
 themes when in serious conversation with his 
 intimates. 
 
 Chantrey did well all he undertook, and some 
 things pre-eminently. As a painter, as a drafts- 
 man, as an architect, as a mechanic, he evinced 
 great ability; in geology, chemistry, and optics, 
 as well as in the exact sciences, he had consi- 
 derable knowledge, and enough to give him a 
 lively interest in all. 
 
 The sports, the pleasures, and the labours of 
 the field he well understood ; and when in 
 company with young men whose pursuits related 
 to the agriculture of their country, he felt
 
 FEATS OF MANUAL LABOUR. 171 
 
 pleasure in declaring that, during his early career, 
 he had mowed an acre of grass in a day, 
 thrashed a quarter of corn in a day, and also 
 ploughed an acre of land in , a day. He 
 thought that a man should be able to do every- 
 thing that tended to the duties, necessities, and 
 conveniences of life, not only in consequence 
 of the advantages resulting from a knowledge of 
 all things and employments, but also to be 
 enabled to estimate the labour of others. 
 
 A more manly and courageous mind could not 
 be found ; he shrunk from no difficulty, nor was 
 deterred by any embarrassment that labour, assi- 
 duity, and good sense could surmount. In his 
 art his resources were wonderful : every objection- 
 able form or subject seemed to give birth to a 
 fresh creation of taste ; his ingenuity expanded as 
 impediments occurred, and there was nothing in 
 portrait sculpture that he was not ready to attempt 
 or unable to achieve. Nor is partial friendship 
 
 12
 
 172 REPRESENTATION OF FORM AND FLESH. 
 
 passing the bounds of justice in affirming that 
 his drapery figures equal the best examples of 
 ancient art, and surpass the greater part which 
 have been preserved from destruction through 
 time and circumstances. 
 
 His busts were dignified by his knowledge and 
 admiration of the antique, and the fleshy, pulpy 
 appearance he gave to marble seems almost 
 miraculous when operating on such a material ; 
 the heads of his busts were raised with dignity, 
 the throats large and well turned, the shoulders 
 ample, or made to appear so ; likeness was 
 preserved and natural defect obviated. George 
 the Fourth, the Duke of Sussex, Lord Castle- 
 reagh, and others, were so struck with Chantrey's 
 power of appreciating every advantage of form, 
 that they bared their chests and shoulders, that 
 the sculptor might have every opportunity that 
 well-formed nature could present. 
 
 Added to the above-named qualities, in all his
 
 RECTITUDE OP CONDUCT. 173 
 
 proceedings rectitude of conduct was his guide 
 and his object ; and he would not allow any 
 private interest of his own, nor of others, to inter- 
 fere with the public good. In every society to 
 which he belonged, he was solicitous for the 
 benefit of the whole, and considered himself as 
 the representative of all the members, and not 
 the advocate of any party or portion ; he took an 
 extended view of everything, and never allowed 
 selfishness or interest to sway him. 
 
 Possibly his early life and honest education 
 gave him that independent yet unpresuming feel- 
 ing which led him to esteem all below him in 
 rank equally with those above him ; and to give 
 just consideration and respect to virtue and talent 
 in whomsoever it was found. If he had any- 
 thing of a moral or judicial kind to investigate or 
 correct, he endeavoured to find out whether the 
 error was in the higher authorities, before he 
 judged or reproached the subordinate; he had
 
 174 SIR JEFFREY WYATTVILLE. 
 
 no hesitation before the elevated, nor dread of 
 their resentment, and always advocated mercy 
 towards the unfortunate. 
 
 He felt that by the Sovereign's attention to 
 him, to Sir Jeffrey "Wyattville, and Sir M. Archer 
 Shee, their professions were honoured and held 
 up to the public as entitled to more respect 
 than they are accustomed to receive in Great 
 Britain. 
 
 Wyattville, by his honest and judicious conduct, 
 elicited the respect of George the Fourth and his 
 successor, and, during the whole of his career in 
 the restoration and improvement of Windsor 
 Castle, his success was as complete as his correct- 
 ness was remarkable; and when he revised the 
 expenditure of 770,OOOZ. with the receipts from 
 the Government, he had the pleasure of finding 
 that the deficit amounted to no more than seven- 
 pence on the whole of the disbursement, up to 
 the period of examination. He frequently, with
 
 IMPROVEMENTS AT WINDSOR CASTLE. 175 
 
 respectful caution, remonstrated with the mo- 
 narch on some proposed and costly project formed 
 by his Majesty, for which the funds were in- 
 adequate, and generally succeeded in convincing 
 the King. The subject was good-humouredly 
 dismissed, by George the Fourth saying, "Well, 
 old gentleman, I suppose you must have your 
 way ; " thus proving that honest and judicious 
 advice will be listened to, when offered to those * 
 least subject to opposition or control. 
 
 Chantrey was an excellent shot; examples of 
 this are numerous ; and amongst others, he killed 
 two woodcocks at the discharge of a single 
 barrel. The late Lord Leicester induced him 
 to record the event in marble for Holkham, 
 which the sculptor presented to the noble earl 
 to adorn that seat of hospitable and sporting 
 celebrity. 
 
 His facetiousness came out when consulted by
 
 176 PROFESSIONAL FACETIOUSNESS. 
 
 Lord Leicester as to the best mode of framing a 
 miniature of his fifth child, or rather the manner 
 of including that portrait with four others already 
 put together in one case; this seemed a great 
 difficulty without destroying the arrangement of 
 the four, on perceiving which the sculptor jocosely 
 remarked, " Sir, you had better fill a similar case, 
 having one to begin with." 
 
 In his amusements Chantrey was as wayward 
 and as bland as a child, with a sweetness of 
 temper that could not be surpassed, which ren- 
 dered him dear and entertaining to his friends, 
 though he occasionally surprised strangers, by 
 whom men of genius are expected to be as unlike 
 others in all their actions as in their peculiar 
 professional pursuits. 
 
 He had but little feeling for the eccentricities 
 of genius; he thought it an excuse of the am- 
 bitious to usurp the place of real and developed
 
 EXALTED NOTIONS OP ART. 177 
 
 talent, and an appeal to the public by presuming 
 individuals of slender abilities. 
 
 His notion respecting the character and con- 
 duct of an artist was almost Utopian, or at least 
 carried to the most chivalric extent ; for he 
 thought that no interest nor inclination ought to 
 tempt an artist to any selfish or mercenary view ; 
 the love of art, and the honour of promoting it, 
 he considered the first duty of an artist ; that 
 it ought to supersede every object of profit 
 or worldly advantage; he also thought that all 
 the professors should exercise the most rigorous 
 caution with respect to integrity and honour. 
 A breach of truth, promise, or a subterfuge, 
 he considered as too disgraceful to be endured 
 amongst men who presumed to illustrate the 
 beautiful, the pure, and the virtuous; and he 
 abhorred everything licentious in art. 
 
 The grosser physical habits he contemned, 
 and often used to jest on his apparent love 
 
 I 3
 
 178 PHYSICAL HABITS. 
 
 of the table, and the means he took to evince 
 his hospitality, and contribute to the comfort 
 of his Mends. With these feelings he deeply 
 regretted his practice of taking snuff, and made 
 several efforts to relinquish the habit, but with- 
 out success; and he often cautioned persons in 
 a jocose way, by saying to any one introduced 
 to him, " Sir, as a new acquaintance, I will give 
 you a piece of advice, and it is this : never take 
 snuff; I have done so twenty years, and have 
 repented doing so twenty years." This often 
 surprised a stranger, but may have been 
 beneficial, for it was offered most sincerely, and 
 so good-naturedly, though abruptly, that it 
 never gave offence. Chantrey often relieved 
 a severity of manner in the necessary execution 
 of his duties, by a sudden transition to the 
 most playful good-nature. He was stern and 
 resolute for the accomplishment of that which 
 he believed to be right, and little inclined to
 
 VALUE OF ART. 179 
 
 screen the misconduct of those in his own 
 station of life, and to whom he often gave a 
 salutary lesson of admonition whilst he at the 
 same time administered comfort. 
 
 Though a cheerful liver, he felt completely 
 the value of art in correcting luxurious and 
 sensual habits, and of adding to the pure en- 
 joyments of life ', and those who consider utility 
 only, omit to observe that utility leads on to 
 luxury, and that luxury tends to its own augmen- 
 tation, debasing human character to sensuality, 
 if unattended by pursuits which lead to mental 
 improvement. 
 
 Such reflections operated on the philosophical 
 sculptor, and conduced to his belief in the im- 
 portance of the Royal Academy for the promotion 
 of fine art, as a means to improve the moral 
 character of society by the instruction and 
 amusement it might afford. With this im- 
 pression he had been imbued for twenty years,
 
 180 TASTE FOR THE COLOSSAL. 
 
 and it terminated in the disposal of his property 
 for this purpose; thus proving by his act the 
 sincerity of his thought. 
 
 His taste in sculpture all tended to the grand 
 and colossal; therefore the examples in Egypt both 
 in figures and architecture claimed his regard, 
 yet he never admired the extragavant; he was 
 as simple in his art as in his manners and 
 feelings. He thought a fine representation of 
 man the most imposing of objects, and his desire 
 to impress the world with its importance led 
 him to wish to imitate, on a feasible object, 
 Democrates, who offered to cut Mount Athos 
 into a statue of Alexander.* Chantrey wished 
 to convert a projecting rock in Derbyshire into 
 a human figure ; he also gave a design for a 
 colossal statue of the Duke of Sutherland, to 
 
 rt]v NJO/STJI/, KCU. avros etSov ave\6cav es TOV ~2,nrv\ov TO 
 opos 1} 8e ir\rtffiov fiev irerpa KCU Kpyuvos fffTiv, . . . fiSeyf 
 iroppcarepti! yevoio, SeSa.Kpv/j.fvrii' 8oeis opav KCU Kari)(pri ywaiKO. 
 PAUSANIAS, Niobe, Lib. i. c. xxi.
 
 INTERCOURSE WITH EMINENT MEN. 181 
 
 be built up in a rough manner on an eminence 
 near Trentham. 
 
 Although not a great reader^ yet he never 
 forgot any remarkable fact that he had met with 
 in literature, or in the course of conversation 
 with the learned in art or science. Sir Walter 
 Scott, Southey, Rogers, and the distinguished 
 members of the Church and both Universities, were 
 amongst his friends and associates. Wollaston 
 thought the sculptor's mind capable of maturing 
 any subject to which it might be steadily 
 directed. 
 
 From a state of indifference towards the Royal 
 Academy, Chantrey became an earnest and dis- 
 interested advocate for its welfare, and often used 
 to say that he felt profound respect for the men 
 by whom the laws and regulations had been 
 formed. Although, like every other institution, 
 rules to meet every exigency were not found, yet, 
 on serious and mature consideration, in private
 
 182 THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
 
 and in council, he believed that no change or 
 alteration could be made, without being incon- 
 venient or cumbrous to the institution. 
 
 With such opinions, it may be supposed that 
 he was a great advocate for its permanency, and in 
 his will bound his trustees to preserve his pro- 
 perty for the use of the original establishment 
 an establishment that probably offers, more than 
 any other in Europe, the best advantages for the 
 progress of art ; a fact proved by nearly all the 
 great artists of the country having been educated 
 under its roof, and whose members have graced 
 the institution, and adorned the country.* 
 
 To entitle the Royal Academy to this cha- 
 
 * " Sir Francis, we all know, left a large fortune, and destined 
 it most generously, most nobly, to the service of the fine arts in 
 Great Britain, and with that great object in view, to what hands 
 did he entrust the management of his munificent bequest ? He 
 constituted the President and Council of the Royal Academy his 
 trustees for ever ! He did so after thirty years' close observation 
 of the body, and no stricter observer ever lived." Qtuarterfy 
 Review, Sept., 1843.
 
 ITS CONSTITUTION. 183 
 
 racter, and to justify the estimation in which 
 it was held by Chantrey, it may be well to 
 state how it is constituted, and its mode of 
 operation. 
 
 The Royal Academy consists of forty Acade- 
 micians, receiving their commission from the 
 Sovereign, under the sign manual each of the 
 forty being elected by that body, and out of a 
 second order, denominated Associates, amounting 
 to twenty in number. There is also another 
 class of Associates, confined to engravers, as a 
 testimony of their great ability, in imitating and 
 diffusing copies in chiaroscuro of the most 
 admired of ancient and modern works. By their 
 able hands many meritorious examples of art 
 have been rescued from oblivion, but as their 
 efforts do not consist of invention in design, 
 it was thought right to give them a rank 
 expressly to themselves, which also affords them 
 the advantages of the institution, without
 
 184 ACADEMIC OFFICIALS. 
 
 including them in the class to which the govern- 
 ment of the establishment belongs, namely, the 
 forty Academicians. 
 
 A small class was added to the practical pro- 
 fessors of Anatomy, Painting, Sculpture, Architec- 
 ture, and Perspective, designated in the following 
 manner 
 
 A Chaplain, of high rank in the Church. 
 
 A Professor of Ancient History. 
 
 A Professor of Ancient Literature. 
 
 A Secretary for Foreign Correspondence ; and 
 
 An Antiquary. 
 
 These persons have always been selected from the 
 most distinguished in the land, to unite art with 
 all from which it may occasionally require aid; 
 for although the literary education of artists 
 ought to be as extensive as possible, yet they 
 may sometimes require the assistance of those 
 whose opportunities and abilities have enabled 
 them to make deeper research.
 
 EMOLUMENTS OF OFFICES. 185 
 
 The executive consists of a President and 
 Council of eight, four going out every year, and 
 four coming in by rotation throughout the whole 
 list of Academicians. 
 
 This is a very simple structure, and can be 
 managed without much difficulty or expenditure 
 of time. 
 
 The permanent officers are four, a Keeper, 
 Secretary, Treasurer, and Librarian, and are 
 held much more as honours than as situations 
 of emolument, for if they were not stations of 
 high consideration amongst the body, the pecu- 
 niary recompense to each is so small, that it 
 would be derogatory to any man of talent to 
 receive it. 
 
 He thought any attempt disloyal to alter the 
 constitution of the Royal Academy, as directed 
 by the gracious founder, which the sculptor con- 
 sidered an establishment given by that Monarch 
 to the individuals composing it, and to the State,
 
 186 OBJECT OF ITS FOUNDATION. 
 
 as an accessory to the Government for the 
 improvement of taste in the country, without 
 expense to the nation. For the institution of 
 the Royal Academy of Arts is not a public, 
 but private one, founded by the Sovereign, 
 and supported either by the means of the 
 Sovereign or by its own, if it have or can 
 acquire any. 
 
 George the Third established this Academy at 
 his own risk of expense, and gave for its use 
 apartments in his private property at Somerset 
 House (which apartments were relinquished by 
 the Royal Academy to the Government, with the 
 consent of William the Fourth, in exchange for 
 those the institution now occupies in Trafalgar 
 Square, their former rooms being appropriated 
 to the Government School of Design). George 
 the Third entrusted the government of the esta- 
 blishment to forty men distinguished in painting, 
 sculpture, and architecture, and wished them to
 
 MEANS OF STJPPOBT. 187 
 
 form schools for the study of youth desirous to 
 become artists. This has been, and is done, pro- 
 bably, more completely than in any part of 
 Europe. An exhibition of the works of the 
 members and others has been adopted as a means 
 of relieving the Sovereign from the expense 
 which would otherwise fall on the private dis- 
 bursement of the crown. The Royal Academy 
 is grateful for the approbation and esteem evinced 
 by the public, but it is in no way under public 
 or Government control, but the Government may 
 be said to be indebted to the Sovereign for an 
 institution for the promotion of Fine Art, without 
 being the smallest expense to the nation. 
 
 In all other countries, similar establishments 
 are supported by the State, the Monarch, and 
 private subscription, and generally a small annual 
 payment from the students, whilst the Royal 
 Academy of England finds for itself the means 
 for the end, by an annual exhibition of the works
 
 188 DEPAETMENTS OF INSTRUCTION. 
 
 of the members, and of the candidates to become 
 such. From this source, funds arise to support 
 schools, under competent instructors, for study 
 from the antique, from the life, from pictures by 
 old masters, from draped figures, and for archi- 
 tecture, with a valuable library, and practical 
 lectures on perspective. 
 
 To all these the student is admitted without 
 the slightest pecuniary expense, and if he fail 
 during the time of his studentship, which is fixed 
 at ten years, to become a student for life, he can 
 always secure his place in the schools by a yearly 
 application to the President and Council, which 
 request is never denied to ny, excepting for 
 misconduct, of which, to the credit of art, it may 
 be said, there is not an example ; thus, admission 
 to the institution may be considered as a station 
 during life for the purpose of study. The rooms of 
 the Society are warmed, and professors appointed 
 to instruct all that are desirous of profiting by
 
 COMPLAINT AGAINST THE ACADEMY. 189 
 
 advice ; at the same time, the most perfect liberty 
 is left to each individual to follow the mode of 
 study he may prefer, or think best. 
 
 So highly did he think of the advantages 
 offered by the establishment, that he did his 
 utmost to promote it, for he was anxious for im- 
 provement in every branch of study which tended 
 to the advancement of art, and was willing that 
 any expense should be incurred for the benefit of 
 the schools; but to any thing extrinsic, he was 
 strongly adverse, as involving a loss of money, 
 and of time. He thought that the first duty of 
 the Academy should be to secure the best talent 
 of the country for its members, in which it has 
 always succeeded; but the great complaint that 
 is made against the Academy, is, that they, accord- 
 ing to their laws, judge of the merits of candidates 
 for Academic honours, instead of leaving that 
 judgment to the profession in general, or to the 
 public.
 
 190 ENCOURAGEMENT OF ART. 
 
 He well knew that the deficiencies in British 
 art arose from the want of encouragement in the 
 practice likely to produce estimable works, for to 
 do so, length of time and strict application are 
 necessary ; also a certainty of some recompense. 
 Few patrons can or will give the pecuniary reward 
 that such labour requires, even for daily support, 
 and the Government cannot do much, so that 
 artists are obliged to produce works of slight 
 character, and slender merit, to procure the 
 means of existence. This prompted him to leave 
 his wealth for the advantage of those who may 
 be courageous enough to encounter severe appli- 
 cation, self-denial, probable disappointment, and 
 even ridicule, in the endeavour to elevate the 
 mental and moral character of art. 
 
 His opinion respecting study in Rome for 
 the accomplishment of artists is developed in 
 some notes, and an extract he made from the 
 "Edinburgh Review" in January, 1841, and
 
 SOJOURN OF STUDENTS AT ROME. 191 
 
 also from some remarks on Dr. Waagen's 
 works.* 
 
 Chantrey objected to the practice of the Royal 
 Academy in allowing students to remain three 
 years in Rome ; he thought the better plan would 
 be to give them a sum of money to travel under 
 certain restrictions. 
 
 He desired to advance the schools at home, and 
 also to do justice to the establishments provided ; 
 such as the British Museum, with the Townley 
 
 * Dr. Waagen : " A visit to Italy has often proved the rock on 
 which the hopes of many young artists of Germany and the 
 Netherlands, both in former times and in our own days, have 
 been miserably wrecked." 
 
 Again, he says : " He endeavours to grasp every thing, digests 
 nothing, practises little, and too commonly returns from his 
 travels a much more indifferent painter than when he left his 
 own country an artist, in short, of mere shreds and patches 
 pilfered from the works of others, which he has neither the expe- 
 rience nor the judgment to combine and apply to any rational 
 purpose. It is far otherwise with men, who, like Rubens and Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds, visit Italy after they have become accomplished 
 artists, when they are well acquainted with the peculiar bias of 
 their own genius, and with what it will be most advisable for 
 them to study in the works of others, in order to decorate or 
 strengthen their own style without injuring its originality."
 
 192 PEEFERENCE OV FOREIGN ART. 
 
 and Elgin marbles, the National Gallery, that of 
 Windsor, the Cartoons, Dulwich Gallery, with the 
 advantage of the fine collection of the Marquess 
 of Westminster, the Earl of Ellesmere, and others, 
 who generously allow their galleries to be seen. 
 He feared that the praise bestowed on foreign art 
 of the present or previous ages by the aristocracy 
 of the country tended to depress and discourage 
 rising talent. He writes, " The aristocracy praise 
 foreign art, and are encouraged sometimes by 
 English artists ;" he then names Glasgow as one 
 proof of preference for the work of a stranger land, 
 and concludes by saying, " Encourage the British 
 to be true to themselves." 
 
 His mind was remarkable for ready and clear 
 perception ; ready for a hint which he could and 
 always did improve ; ready to inquire and to 
 profit by the inquiry; but he was not always a 
 deliberate thinker, a meditator on the success or 
 failure of others, or of the causes which led to
 
 MENTAL QUALITIES. 193 
 
 such results ; nor was he an original thinker, but 
 the readiest adapter and improver of the thoughts 
 of others that could be found in his circle, and 
 perhaps in his time. From the slightest indica- 
 tion he could develope a sequence that always 
 appeared judicious; he never hesitated to ac- 
 knowledge that which he received from others, 
 although in truth he generally improved and dig- 
 nified the foundation on which he constructed 
 any of his works. His nature was too open, 
 noble, and honest, ever to deny an advantage 
 he had received, yet his mind and taste were too 
 acute and fertile to allow him to adopt entirely 
 the suggestions of another without alterations or 
 extension. 
 
 His philosophic mind induced him always to 
 seek perfection in whatever he undertook; he 
 had little respect for versatility of talent ; he felt 
 that the object of each individual should be to 
 carry as far as possible the pursuit he undertook.
 
 194 CHARACTER OF BRITISH ART. 
 
 In art he strongly recommended every one to 
 follow strenuously that which his talent and in- 
 clination dictated, and opposed speculation on 
 the possibility of success in any other line. He 
 thought that colour and effect were the predomi- 
 nant characteristics of British art, and he wished 
 to see these carried on continually, with the hope 
 of greater results than have as yet been attained ; 
 at the same time he wished that elevated sub- 
 jects should be chosen, such as are calculated to 
 instruct and improve; for no one could object 
 more strongly to the debasement of a noble art 
 to insignificant, low, or disgusting representa- 
 tions. He considered such things as degrading 
 a profession which ought to be parallel in utility 
 and importance with moral instruction, and only 
 inferior to religion itself, to which it might 
 always be the handmaid. For literature and 
 science Chantrey had but little time, although 
 he loved both ; therefore he induced scientific and
 
 PRACTICAL CAST OF MIND. 195 
 
 learned men to visit him, by his intelligence and 
 his unbounded hospitality. 
 
 Inclination and mind led him rather to prac- 
 tical science than to literature or speculative 
 hypotheses. Classic learning engaged but little 
 of his attention ; he knew that the pursuit of art, 
 and even one branch of art, was sufficient for 
 human life, and he exemplified this by resisting 
 all the temptations offered him to compose and 
 model historical or poetical subjects; for by a 
 common mistake, or from the too prevalent desire 
 of the public for novelty, his admirers and em- 
 ployers often pressed him to indulge in the in- 
 ventive, in the fanciful, and the allegoric ; but his 
 sound sense and reason always prevented him 
 from deviating from the course which nature, his 
 own observations, and his peculiar ability dictated ; 
 and when solicited to do something in the grand 
 style, as it is called, by his less sagacious friends, 
 he always resisted their importunities, and was 
 
 K 2
 
 196 RESTRICTION TO ONE PURSUIT. 
 
 accustomed to answer, " Leave me to practise that 
 in which I generally succeed, and let me not 
 attempt that in which my efforts may not aug- 
 ment my own reputation, or be any credit to my 
 
 country. I am content to share with my brethren 
 
 \ 
 in the honours of art, by a reputation in one 
 
 particular branch, without envying or emulating 
 the success of my contemporaries in their respec- 
 tive pursuits/' He referred lovers of the poetic 
 to the exquisite works of Flaxman, whose illus- 
 trations of the Greek poets called for and received 
 his unbounded approbation. Yet he was not 
 deficient in poetic feeling, but it was the poetry 
 of tenderness and affection : the child, the mother, 
 the mourner, and the afflicted, received from his 
 hand a pathetic and graceful expression. The 
 most delicate indications of sensibility he always 
 perceived and adopted with a gentle and generous 
 feeling. In each department of art, he wished 
 the successful student to pursue unremittingly
 
 LORD EGEEMONT. 197 
 
 that which might carry him to a degree of emi- 
 nence beyond his predecessors, and thus really 
 add to the progress of art, and claim an im- 
 mortality for himself. 
 
 By Lord Egremont, he was offered an unlimited 
 commission to execute a colossal figure of Satan 
 from Milton, but the sculptor, either from want 
 of inclination, or diffidence, never took the subject 
 entirely into consideration, although he often 
 mentioned it, and probably felt some regret at 
 not acceding to the desire of that distinguished 
 and generous nobleman. 
 
 Lord Egremont's patronage of art did more for 
 its promotion than can be calculated or expressed, 
 for he sought and succoured genius, infused hope, 
 and gave opportunities for talent to develope 
 itself, and his name well merits the grateful and 
 permanent recollection of the profession in all its 
 branches. 
 
 Mr. Leslie thus relates the manner in which
 
 198 COMMISSION FROM LORD EGREMONT. 
 
 the above commission was given : " He received 
 a visit one day from two gentlemen, strangers to 
 him, who did not mention their names. While 
 walking through his gallery, one of them said, 
 ' You seem to have been wholly employed on 
 portraits ; have you never modelled an ideal sub- 
 ject, or anything from poetry ? ' ' No, sir/ 
 replied Chantrey, ' our patrons do not give com- 
 missions for such subjects, at least, not to English 
 artists ; the only sculptor among us, who has been 
 employed on anything of the kind, is Flaxman, 
 who has a commission from Lord Egremont for a 
 group of the Angel Michael and the Devil/ The 
 strangers, on leaving Chantrey, put their cards 
 into his hand, and he found he had been speaking 
 to Lord Egremont himself. The other gentleman, 
 I think he said, was Lord Cowper. In a few days 
 Lord Egremont called again, and said, ' I wish 
 you to do something ideal for me ; what do you 
 say to a colossal figure of the Devil ?' He answered,
 
 INCIDENT AT OXFORD. 199 
 
 ' that he thought, nothing could be better/ and 
 it was his own fault, as he told me, that the 
 commission was never executed." 
 
 Mr. Leslie also relates the following anecdote : 
 " Chantrey told me, that on one of his visits to 
 Oxford, Professor Buckland, now Dean of West- 
 minster, said to him, ' If you will come to me, 
 you shall hear yourself well abused.' He had 
 borrowed a picture of Bishop Heber from the 
 Hall of New College, to make a statue from, and 
 having kept it longer than he had promised, the 
 woman, who showed the Hall, was very bitter 
 against him. ' There is no dependance/ she said, 
 ' to be placed on that Chantrey. He is as bad as 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence, who has served me just 
 the same ; there is not a pin to choose between 
 them/ She pointed to the empty frame, and 
 said, f It is many a shilling out of my pocket the 
 picture not being there ; they make a great fuss 
 about that statue of (mentioning one by
 
 200 FEMALE PETULANCE AND CRITICISM. 
 
 Chantrey, that had lately been sent to one of 
 the colleges) ; but we have one by Bacon, which, 
 in my opinion, is twice as good. When Chantrey' s 
 statue came, I had ours washed. I used a dozen 
 pails of water, and I am sure I made it look a 
 great deal better than his/ He took out a five- 
 shilling piece, and putting it into her hand, but 
 without letting go, said, 'Look at me, and tell 
 me whether I look like a very bad man/ ' Lord, 
 no, sir/ ' Well, then, I am that Chantrey you 
 are so angry with/ She seemed somewhat dis- 
 concerted ; but quickly recovering herself, replied, 
 'And if you are, sir, I have said nothing but 
 what is true/ and he resigned the money into 
 her hand." 
 
 Consulted by the Dean and Chapter of West- 
 minster as to the best means of preserving the 
 monuments in the Abbey, to their surprise he 
 recommended that all the iron rails round them 
 should be removed. He said, "We do not
 
 THE MONUMENTS IN THE ABBEY. 201 
 
 understand John Bull; we are always by our 
 prohibitions saying, you shall not come here, and 
 you shall not go there, and John Bull says, 
 'I'll let you see that I will."' A friend of his, 
 who had been educated at Westminster, told him 
 that it was considered an achievement to be 
 accomplished by every boy to scale the railing 
 that surrounded the monument of John, Duke 
 of Argyll, and that he, being very active, often 
 succeeded in this feat, but never without leaving 
 his name on the monument. 
 
 When selecting a place for Mr. Watt's statue 
 in Westminster Abbey, he was accompanied by 
 the late Lord Liverpool and Mr. C. Hampden 
 Turner, and the subject of durability of monu- 
 mental memorials was discussed. The sculptor 
 took Lord L. to the spot where William Pitt 
 and Charles James Fox lay, nearly side by side, 
 and it was observed that the stones over the 
 graves were cracked, and the engraved letters 
 
 K 3
 
 202 GRAVE-STONES OF PITT AND FOX. 
 
 almost obliterated; this occasioned regret to all 
 the party, and the Earl, with a tear standing in 
 his eye, asked Chantrey what could be done to 
 prevent such effacement, when the sculptor 
 replied, "If your Lordship will obtain permis- 
 sion for me, I will place stones that are not 
 liable to suffer, or the writing to be defaced." 
 The consent was obtained, and after a short time 
 Chantrey showed to his friend Mr. Hampden 
 Turner two blocks of stone of almost imperish- 
 able thickness, and the inscriptions so deeply 
 cut, that erasure must be the destruction of the 
 granite. 
 
 His estimation of elaborate works appeared 
 not to be so great as it really was, for his unaided 
 sight for minute matters was bad; yet in the 
 beautiful drawing and composition of such pic- 
 tures as those by Mulready and Wilkie he took 
 the greatest pleasure, and would point out, with 
 the aid of his glass, all the minute beauties and
 
 JOCULAR REMONSTRANCES. 203 
 
 scrupulous adherence to everything characteristic 
 of the subject, and the expression these artists 
 intended to depict ; and among men of merit, 
 who fell into any peculiarity of manner in their 
 works, he would try to rally them out of prac- 
 tices that seemed likely to injure their reputation 
 or their works. He extended this jocular mode 
 to others if he detected any affected peculiarity 
 in their dress, manner, or habits, and often 
 sought by a good-natured practical remonstrance 
 to check this disposition. Among others, when- 
 ever he saw a man proud of, or cultivating, a 
 superfluous growth of hair, or imitating a 
 Raphaelesque appearance, he would with infinite 
 humour present such a person with a shilling, 
 and beg that he would encourage some hair- 
 dresser by his custom. He has been known to 
 send by a friend to any eccentric character this 
 practical and ludicrous remonstrance against 
 singularity.
 
 204 DUKE OF SUSSEX. 
 
 At the time that the Duke of Sussex sat for 
 his portrait to Chantrey, he wore moustachios 
 and a beard, which induced the sculptor to 
 remark, that he could not render with truth the 
 mouth and chin whilst it was so concealed by 
 hair ; on which his Royal Highness, with jocose 
 vehemence, exclaimed with an oath, " The beard 
 shall go with me to the grave;" upon which 
 Chantrey replied, repeating the Duke's oath, 
 " Then I cannot model your Royal Highnesses 
 face." The good-natured Duke laughed at the 
 artist's frankness, and when he next appeared in 
 the studio he was close shaven, much to the 
 astonishment of the sculptor, and to the amuse- 
 ment of both. 
 
 On one occasion, at a dinner-party, he was 
 placed nearly opposite his wife at table, at the 
 time when very large and full sleeves were worn, 
 of which Lady C. had a very fashionable com- 
 plement, and the sculptor perceived that a gen-
 
 GOOD-NATUKED SATIRE. 205 
 
 tleman sitting next to her was constrained to 
 confine his arms, and shrink into the smallest 
 dimensions lest he should derange the superfluous 
 attire. Chantrey observing this, addressed him 
 thus ; " Pray, sir, do not inconvenience yourself 
 from the fear of spoiling those sleeves, for that 
 lady is my wife ; those sleeves are mine, and as I 
 have paid for them, you are at perfect liberty to 
 risk any injury your personal comfort may cause 
 to those prodigies of fashion." Also, noticing 
 a lady with sleeves " curiously cut," he affected to 
 think the slashed openings were from economical 
 motives, and said, " What a pity the dressmaker 
 should have spoiled your sleeves ! it was hardly 
 worth while to save such a little bit of stuff." 
 
 A lady, one of his guests at dinner, wore a 
 cameo brooch of the head of Michael Angelo ; 
 he said to her, " Always wear that brooch at my 
 house, for it prevents me from growing con- 
 ceited :" and he always had a flow of lively and
 
 206 ATTENTIONS TO FEMALES. 
 
 good-natured trifles, that made him agreeable to 
 everybody. 
 
 He united with his apparent roughness and 
 abrupt manner the genuine and valuable acts of 
 politeness, for although he has been heard to tell 
 a lady to open the door, and other jocular free- 
 doms, he always attended to their comforts, and 
 rarely omitted going up with the ladies after 
 dinner to see that the fire, the lights, and the 
 curtains were all adjusted as they should be 
 in the drawing-room, for no one better under- 
 stood these minor acts of attention than himself ; 
 and when he found all arranged for their comfort, 
 he returned to his guests in the dining-room. 
 
 Chantrey's zeal for his profession was evinced 
 most effectively, for, in leaving his property, he 
 made his intentions known to very few, and to 
 those on the honour of secresy, for he did not 
 wish to excite present gratitude, and he was con- 
 scious that some might press him to a less noble
 
 BEQUEST FOE THE ADVANCEMENT OF ART. 207 
 
 application of his wealth ; but the sculptor's mind 
 was deeply imbued with the love of his profes- 
 sion, and he was filled with an earnest desire 
 for its progress, and for this purpose he wished to 
 accumulate wealth ; therefore, none knew his in- 
 tention but Sir M. A. Shee, Mr. Jones, and Mr. 
 Vernon ; the former from being President of the 
 Royal Academy, in which institution he so much 
 confided; the second, as his executor connected 
 with the arts ; and Mr. Vernon, in consequence of 
 Mr. Jones having informed Sir F. Chantrey of 
 Mr. Vernon's noble intentions for the benefit of 
 art and its connections; for by a singular 
 coincidence, at the time Sir. F. Chantrey deter- 
 mined to leave his wealth for the benefit of art, 
 Mr. Vernon resolved to leave about 70,OOOJ. for 
 a similar purpose, to include eleemosynary relief 
 for poor, infirm, old, and unsuccessful artists. 
 
 Mr. Garrard, at that time solicitor to Mr. Ver- 
 non, suggested to him this mode of assisting, by
 
 208 MR. VERNON*S INTENDED BEQUEST. 
 
 his bequest, a profession which Mr. Vernon highly 
 esteemed, and from which, and from its members, 
 he received great satisfaction, amusement, and 
 attention. 
 
 Mr. Vernon readily adopted this plan, also a 
 suggestion to establish a number of fellowships 
 for four or five years, with an income of 200 
 per annum to each fellow during that time, to 
 enable him to prosecute his studies in the higher, 
 though less popular branches of art, without 
 dread of discouragement through poverty; he 
 also intended to leave a large sum in aid of the 
 Artists' General Benevolent Institution. 
 
 These arrangements were made in accordance 
 with the opinion of Sir F. Chantrey, that the 
 generous intentions of both benefactors might 
 not interfere. 
 
 Chantrey's views are already developed and 
 confirmed ; but Mr. Vernon, during the last two 
 years of his life, listened to fresh advisers, changed
 
 DECAY OP HEALTH. 209 
 
 his plans, and relinquished a title to benevolence 
 in his native land, and in every other land where 
 the arts are esteemed and cultivated ; however, 
 notwithstanding these magnificent and generous 
 intentions were disturbed, Mr. Vernon gave to 
 the nation the collection now bearing his name, 
 which was formed, during twenty years, under the 
 guidance, suggestion, and judgment of Mr. Jones, 
 in whom Mr. Vernon confided so entirely, that 
 he often obliged him to purchase pictures which 
 he had heard of, but from ill health and other 
 circumstances had not seen. 
 
 Two years before Chantrey's death, an awful 
 change took place, distressing to his own spirit 
 and afflicting to his friends ; his festivity forsook 
 him, his cheeks fell, his eye lost its lustre, and 
 his beautiful mouth became vacant of expres- 
 sion, and often fell uncontrolled during fits of 
 somnolency ; his step became slow and sometimes 
 faltering, but his mind continued active and
 
 210 INCREASED DEVOTION TO HIS PROFESSION. 
 
 solicitous ; of his profession he felt the import- 
 ance, and it grew in his esteem as the allure- 
 ments of the fashionable world became unsuit- 
 able to his health or inclination. Whenever his 
 friends, seeing him suffer from indisposition, ad- 
 vised him to relinquish his labours and seek ease 
 in retirement, he used to reply, " My retirement 
 must be my death." His judgment remained clear 
 and undisturbed to the last. 
 
 Within two hours of his death he talked with 
 zeal and anxiety about sculpture, particularly 
 respecting a group of Lord Eldon and Lord Stowel, 
 which excited his interest deeply, and which he felt 
 great solicitude to execute in a marked and even 
 in a peculiar manner, and he looked with pain- 
 ful anxiety for the re-establishment of his 
 health. The equestrian statue of the Duke of 
 Wellington also, within those hours, was the 
 subject of his earnest discussion, and he closed 
 his career under the hope of an improvement
 
 LETTER TO ME. JONES. 
 
 in constitution, which might enable him to 
 execute and direct many future works. On the 
 19th of November Mr. Jones received the follow- 
 ing note from Holkham, stating his intention of 
 returning to London. 
 
 Thursday Morning, Holkham. 
 MY DEAR JONES, 
 
 We are going to Norwich to-day to look 
 after my statue, and stay till Monday; therefore 
 you can direct a line to me, Post Office, Norwich, 
 by Saturday's post, and I shall get it on Sunday. 
 We shall probably return to this place, but you 
 shall hear from me again. Many, many thanks 
 for your kind note, and pray do the best you pos- 
 sibly can for the horse ! ! ! ! In case I return from 
 Norwich, we may reach home about Wednesday 
 night, but it is not very likely. 
 
 Very truly yours, in haste, 
 
 F. C. 
 
 To G. JONES.
 
 212 LAST MOMENTS. 
 
 He appeared as usual at his arrival in Belgrave 
 Square. His friend, Mr. Jones, the keeper of the 
 Royal Academy, called at his house on Thursday 
 the 25th of November, 1841, between five and 
 six o'clock, and was pressed to dine ; but as this 
 was not in his power, Chantrey walked with 
 him part of the way towards Trafalgar Square; 
 during the walk Chantrey complained of a 
 slight pain in his stomach, but made some jokes 
 on his friend suspecting that the pain was 
 cholic. At parting opposite to Buckingham Palace, 
 Mr. Jones advised him to get into a cab, or, if 
 he preferred walking, offered to return with him, 
 but with another joke he struck his stick firmly 
 in the ground, quitted his friend nearly as the 
 
 clock told seven at nine Chantrey had 
 
 ceased to be. 
 
 If the pen of an affectionate friend could de- 
 scribe perfection in confidence and attachment, 
 it should be done; but as that is impossible,
 
 CONCLUSION. 213 
 
 that friend may be allowed to record, that Chan- 
 trey was in friendship so tender, affectionate, and 
 confiding, as to be, by those he loved, all but 
 idolized to the world unbounded in generous 
 and unostentatious liberality and, when mis- 
 conduct or injustice imposed on his credulity, 
 took no revenge beyond neglect. 
 
 8e 
 II. A 207.
 
 LETTERS. 
 
 CHANTREY'S letters are generally so serious or 
 so jocose, that it is not easy to select them for the 
 public, for he never wrote but when occasion and 
 almost necessity required ; many admirable ex- 
 amples of the first class, could not be admitted 
 prudently, and many of the latter are too personal 
 and facetious to be introduced. 
 
 TO GEORGE JONES, ESQ., R.A. 
 
 Sunday Morning, Half-past Six o'clock. 
 
 DEAR JONES, 
 
 Mackerel, roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, 
 and an excellent hen pheasant roasted, sweet as
 
 16 LETTERS. 
 
 a nut ! this 14th day of March, and tender as 
 a chicken, at six o'clock. Only Stokes ! 
 
 Pray come if nothing better offer. I could 
 not reach you yesterday. 
 
 Turner dines with Boddington. I tried a new 
 horse yesterday; won't do. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 F. C. 
 
 TO GEORGE JONES, ESQ., R.A. 
 
 Sunday, 3rd July. 
 
 DEAR JONES, 
 
 You MUST meet Vernon, or bring him 
 in your carriage to dine with me to-morrow, 
 Monday, half-past six. Turner will come : I 
 asked him yesterday, but forgot you. 
 
 F. C.
 
 LETTERS. " 217 
 
 TO MR. JONES. 
 
 13th Sept., 1826, 3 o'clock. 
 
 DEAR JONES, 
 
 I want a man of taste (D n taste), I 
 mean judgment, to look over my statue of 
 George the Fourth. 
 
 Can you will you breakfast here at nine 
 or ten to-morrow? or dine on red herrings at 
 
 five? 
 
 Truly, F. C. 
 
 If you are quite ready, you may ride my horse 
 back now. 
 
 TO C. H. TURNER, ESQ, 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 
 
 4th June, 1827. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 I did not answer your former letter, 
 because I was not master of my own movements. 
 I returned home only last night, and I have now
 
 218 " LETTERS. 
 
 the pleasure to say, that within the next fortnight 
 I am entirely at your service whenever you may 
 be pleased to command me. 
 
 I mean to attend the Committee; but with 
 regard to mineralogy I dare say nothing, for I 
 am just now deeply engaged in improving my 
 own collection, having during the last week pur- 
 chased and paid for one specimen, which weighed 
 eighteen tons, and which was brought to my 
 house by eighteen horses, under the management 
 of fourteen drivers, and accompanied by upwards of 
 one hundred independent electors of Westminster. 
 
 That our clock-work friend should grumble at 
 architects I do not wonder ; they work to measure 
 as tailors do, and if they fail to work within time, 
 they ought to be discharged. Not so with artists ; 
 they must be treated kindly, or they will bring 
 forth bad fruit. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY.
 
 LETTERS. 21.9 
 
 TO MR. JONES. 
 
 LONDON, 10th January, 1830. 
 
 MY DEAR JONES, 
 
 This will probably convey to you the 
 first intelligence of the sudden death of Sir 
 Thomas Lawrence. Three weeks ago he met a 
 party of Royal Society friends at my house, and 
 was in appearance well. I have since been in 
 the country, and returned from Woburn Abbey 
 last night, when I received your letter from 
 Florence, and the melancholy intelligence at the 
 same time. The following is all that I have yet 
 been able to collect. On Saturday the 2nd inst. 
 he dined with Mr. Peel. On Sunday he com- 
 plained of a pain in the neck and lower part of 
 the face (and was bled), which seemed to increase 
 and remit at intervals. He was also affected 
 with a slight bowel complaint. On Tuesday he 
 attended the Committee at the Athenaeum, and 
 
 L2
 
 220 LETTERS. 
 
 none suspected that he was ill. On Wednesday 
 Mrs. Otley and her young family spent the even- 
 ing with him, when he appeared cheerful. After 
 their departure he was worse, and Dr. Holland 
 was sent for, who saw danger, and sat up all night 
 with him ; he was relieved and better during 
 Thursday, and saw two other old friends in the 
 evening. They retired into another room for a 
 short time, when they were suddenly alarmed by 
 cries for assistance from the servant; but when 
 they reached the room they had so recently quitted, 
 he was dead. A general meeting is called for to- 
 morrow evening, after which I shall be able to 
 add more. He was a most excellent President, and 
 I most sincerely believe that he was on all occa- 
 sions anxious to do his duty to the extent of his 
 judgment. His loss must be felt deeply by all. 
 
 12th. 
 
 The post-mortem examination shows no imme- 
 diate nor sufficient cause. A slight increase in
 
 LETTERS. ZZl 
 
 the size of the heart, with a degree of hardness 
 and some slight derangement in the valves con- 
 nected with it. Great exhaustion at the moment 
 must have contributed, although he was to all 
 appearance well on Tuesday. Painted on Wed- 
 nesday. He died at nine o' clock the following 
 evening, Thursday. His remains will be taken 
 to the R. A. on Wednesday the 20th, and buried 
 in St. Paul's on the following day. The arrange- 
 ments adopted at Mr. West's funeral will be 
 adhered to in this, and within ten days from the 
 time of the funeral, that most eventful decision 
 must be made a President chosen. Whoever 
 may be chosen, he must and shall, to the utmost 
 of my ability, be supported. Eespect for the 
 Institution respect for the art marks this as 
 the only sensible course. 
 
 F. CHANTEEY.
 
 222 LETTERS. 
 
 TO C. H. TURNER, ESQ. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 17th January, 1830. 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 For your friendly hint about the Athe- 
 nseum, I thank you. I feel that it is right I 
 should do something, but first let me have a peep 
 into the shop. 
 
 I know not what accommodation this most 
 superb building may afford. I hear that it is so 
 fine, that statues and busts will be mere dirt. 
 Ask friend Hawkins if it will be necessary to gild 
 them. At the same time tell him I mean to 
 contribute something; if not fit for the inside, 
 it may be worthy of a place at the foot of 
 Minerva. 
 
 What weather, fit only for barbarians ! 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 Mrs. is quite well. In haste.
 
 LETTERS. 223 
 
 TO C. H. TURNER, ESQ. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 3rd February. 1830. 
 
 PIG, pork, and pheasant all good; the two 
 last better than the first, only because they are 
 not yet eaten. I thank you from the bottom of 
 my stomach. 
 
 Name your subject, I shall then know how to 
 estimate your judgment. 
 
 I thank you for your congratulations ; I con- 
 gratulate myself that I am yet a happy man, at 
 perfect liberty to laugh, fish, shoot, or play the 
 fool, without asking leave. 
 
 What weather ! fit only for new married folks ! 
 I have stitched my wife up in a sheep skin, wool 
 inside, and do not intend to liberate her until I 
 see the peach tree in blossom. 
 
 I advise you to give your ladies the benefit of 
 my example. Sincerely yours, 
 
 F. C.
 
 224 LETTERS. 
 
 TO C. H. TURNER, ESQ. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 
 
 18th October, 1830. 
 
 THE last of your grapes were eaten at Ivy 
 Bridge, on the third day after leaving home, and 
 we drank health to you and yours in a glass of 
 sherry, which we carried for comfort's sake. 
 
 I am glad ! right heartily glad ! ! that you are 
 pleased with the President and his brush ; had I 
 not felt more than ordinary confidence in both, you 
 would not have been the man to whom I should 
 have recommended either. 
 
 I have looked at the face, and the face looked 
 at me, and we both looked as if we liked each 
 other. Honestly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 P.S. Pray ask Miss Eliza to nurse the violets 
 for me a little longer ; we must go to Petworth 
 for a few days. Mrs. is fat and well.
 
 LETTERS. 225 
 
 TO C. H. TURNER, ESQ. 
 
 5th November, 1831. 
 
 MODERN Athens ! Humbug ! Smoke, mud, 
 rain, and snow ! Here we arrived. Mackay's 
 Hotel, 19, Princes-street, on Thursday last, and 
 here we must stay, at least a fortnight. My first 
 step was to Leith, and I arrived just in time to 
 see the vessel with the royal cargo arrive safe. 
 I next sent to the Post-office for my letters, and 
 the first that I opened informed me that I had 
 4iZL 10s. to pay for insurance had I received the 
 letter before I had seen the vessel, I should have 
 grudged the money less; but I am always 
 unlucky. No ; I ought not to say always, for I 
 have just saved my wife from being burnt to 
 death. You know the monstrous gay-coloured 
 high caps which the little woman wears. She 
 was writing, and one of these fine things took fire 
 from the candle, and in an instant, blazed a yard 
 
 L3
 
 226 LETTEKS. 
 
 high ; instead of pulling off the cap, she put her 
 hand into the flame, and burnt her fingers; 
 imagine the confusion. I was reading about the 
 fires in Bristol. I seized the flaming ornament 
 (it was fastened under the chin) with both hands ; 
 tore it off with all its frizzling appendages, and to 
 save my own fingers, threw it on the fire ; in less 
 than a minute, nothing was left, but some twisted 
 wire, which looked very like the remains of a 
 piece of fire-work, black, with here and there a 
 bit of flame, and a strong smell of burning 
 animal matter, which had accompanied the cap. 
 On turning round to see how much of my wife 
 remained, there stood the little woman in the 
 middle of the floor, a fine study for a figure of 
 fright ! Thank God, it is no worse. Tell Mrs. 
 Turner to take care of her cap, for I know she 
 wears caps; and tell the young ladies to take 
 care of their shoulders, for a shoulder would be 
 more difficult to extinguish than a cap. When I
 
 LETTERS. 227 
 
 have nothing better to do, I will carry your com- 
 pliments to Mr. Saunderson, and select some of 
 his ornaments (that will not take fire) for your 
 ladies ; this, I guess, to be your meaning, although 
 you by no means express it clearly. Now for 
 Mr. Pitt, treat yourself with a ride in the family 
 coach ; lay him on his back on the front seat ; 
 place yourself on the back seat, and contemplate 
 him all the way to Rook's Nest, where he may 
 long remain, and where you, I hope, may long 
 live to protect him. Not a word more about the 
 pedestal until I see you. 
 
 I will think about the iron gates ; but the right 
 way will be to find a pattern already made. I 
 expect you will find them generally higher than 
 you want ; high gates, with a low wall, will not 
 look well. A quadrant should be fixed on the 
 ground, and a roller attached to the gate, or they 
 will not open easy ; after all, I think you ought 
 to allow the ladies to choose the gates ; for if you
 
 228 LETTERS. 
 
 determine this matter, and they prove heavy and 
 difficult to open, your peace will be disturbed. 
 
 Had not my wife been so terribly frightened, 
 she would have answered your letter herself; you 
 may, however, expect a letter soon. 
 
 Pray make our kind regards to Mrs. Turner, 
 and all your family. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, yours sincerely, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 
 
 7th March, 1832. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TURNER, 
 
 At Hodgkinson's, No. 91, top of New 
 Bond Street, you may purchase real China 
 Damask of the first quality, and most elegant 
 pattern, at the extraordinary low price of five and 
 sixpence per yard, equal, if not superior to that 
 which formerly sold at five-and-twenty.
 
 LETTERS. 229 
 
 Now to your letter. I cannot visit you on the 
 seventeenth, and I am very sorry for it. In the 
 first place let me tell you that I have just paid 
 all my debts, but I- have no money at my 
 banker's, and I must work for more before I can 
 encounter the expense of a journey. 
 
 In the second place I must dine with the 
 archbishop on that day for the gratification of 
 my own appetite, and with the hope of giving a 
 lift to a poor parson. 
 
 In the third place the weather is bad, and will 
 be worse on or about the seventeenth. And 
 fourthly, my wife has been caught by a very bad 
 cold, and a very bad cough. 
 
 I may also add, that if I were to visit you 
 just now, before your plans are completed, I 
 might perchance be induced, out of politeness, to 
 acquiesce in those plans, contrary to my better 
 judgment, and thereby deprive myself of the 
 pleasure of finding fault.
 
 230 LETTERS. 
 
 In the hope that we shall soon have the plea- 
 sure of seeing you in London (without fear of 
 cholera), Mrs. Chantrey joins in kind regards to 
 Mr. Turner and the young ladies. 
 
 I remain very faithfully yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 TO MR. JONES. 
 
 5th July, 1832. 
 
 DEAR JONES, 
 
 I sincerely rejoice at the fair probability 
 of the House of Lords falling into good hands. 
 It is too much for you to lose in money, but it 
 is infinitely more in point of reputation, for I do 
 not only think well of it as a portion to boil the 
 pot, but as a work of art, and one, too, very 
 likely to put such subjects into the heads of other 
 people, by which means other artists as well as
 
 LETTERS. 23 1 
 
 yourself may benefit. Therefore it is your duty 
 to go, and go you must, and directly, too, for 
 delay on your part would be imprudent, or some- 
 thing worse. 
 
 Mind your own concerns, and don't imagine 
 that your absence will delay the address to the 
 King, or the building of the new R. A., or the 
 final passing of the Bill therefore look to 
 
 yourself, and go ! 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 F. C. 
 
 TO C. H. TURNER, ESQ. 
 
 TOWN HALL, LIVERPOOL, 
 
 29th September, 1832. 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 On our arrival at Aston Mr. Watt was 
 at Doldowlad ; he will return about the end of 
 next week, by which time we shall be visiting
 
 232 LETTERS. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel, and try our luck again at Aston 
 as we pass through Birmingham, say Wednesday 
 or Thursday in the week following. If that will 
 suit you, tell him so, and we will meet you. 
 
 Everything has been done much to my satis- 
 faction, except that they obliged me to make a 
 speech ! The statue looks better than I had any 
 right to expect. What think you ! The Mayor 
 gave a grand dinner in the Town Hall to my 
 little woman, and I assure you she made the 
 most of herself, eat, drank, and talked most 
 immoderately. We propose going to North 
 Wales next Monday, and as I am armed both 
 with fishing-rod and gun, I intend to kill a 
 salmon. Remember us to your ladies. In haste, 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY.
 
 LETTERS. 233 
 
 TO MR. JONES. 
 
 BELGRAVE SQUARE, 17 Oct., 1832. 
 DEAR JONES, 
 
 On Friday last, at Birmingham, I wrote 
 you an invitation to dine with us yesterday, but 
 received no answer. Your letter of the 12th, just 
 arrived, explains, and I am heartily glad that you 
 are with your good friends in the country, to 
 whom I beg to be most kindly remembered. 
 
 I advise that you remain until they are tired of 
 you ; air and exercise will do you more good than 
 London fogs and stinking paint; besides, you are 
 rich and somewhat independent, possessing a 
 knack of making yourself agreeable when you 
 choose. Tell this to your friends, that they may 
 know how to estimate you. 
 
 Send your Waterloo, and I will provide room 
 for it, sell it, and spend the money.
 
 234 LETTERS. 
 
 Our journey has been pleasant in the extreme : 
 fine weather and cheerful faces everywhere. 
 
 We spent four days at Drayton Manor (Sir 
 Robert Peel's). Mrs. is wonderfully well. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 F. CHANTBEY. 
 
 TO MR. JONES. 
 
 4th January, 1833. 
 
 DEAR JONES, 
 
 The Andover van, with nine horses (oh, 
 what a lie !), brought all that remains of the 
 Battle of Waterloo, and deposited the load 
 safely in my premises. Nothing has been opened 
 by me, nor shall it, until you are present ; but if 
 you die, why, then I will take out the picture, 
 split you down the middle, cram the two slices 
 into the long case, bury the refuse, case and all,
 
 LETTERS. 235 
 
 and hang up the picture, that your name may not 
 be forgotten. So you have caught a cold; my 
 belief is that the cold caught you, and at that 
 d d Athenaeum, after midnight. I'll scratch 
 your name out of the books to-morrow, to save 
 you from evil, and preserve you for the gratifi- 
 cation of your friends, and for your own good. 
 I write because I cannot call to-day. 
 
 Loscombe sent me a cheese; what think you 
 of that, Mr. Jones ? Perhaps you may think you 
 can better answer the question when you have 
 tasted it. In haste, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 F. C.
 
 236 LETTERS. 
 
 TO MR. JONES. 
 
 STOCKBBIDGE, June, 1833. 
 DEAR JONES, 
 
 Make my love to Miss Russell, and the 
 best apology for my not being able to dine with 
 her on Saturday. Fishing weather is come at 
 last. I was most successful yesterday, and am 
 caught by my own success so much, that I 
 cannot make up my mind to quit for an hour. 
 
 On Sunday, at half-past ten, I propose starting 
 home, and I have a seat in my carriage for you. 
 Now tell me what you mean to do? Answer 
 this question, in person, any day, and stay all 
 night ; we have plenty of beds, four of the party 
 having left us. 
 
 I shall leave word at the inn, every morning, 
 where you will find me, and a pair of water-boots 
 are left in my bedroom, for you to use. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY.
 
 LETTEES. 237 
 
 TO MR. JONES. 
 
 STOCKBRIDGE, June 7th, 1833. 
 
 MY DEAR JONES, 
 
 I am very sorry to say that I must 
 confirm the tenor of my fomer letter. I found, 
 last night, that Mudge and Penn were reluctant 
 to give up half the last day of the May fly ; and 
 having brought one of them here, and being 
 pledged to take them back, that I cannot with 
 propriety separate from them. 
 
 I can only repeat that I feel annoyed at not 
 being able to show more respect to the kindness 
 of Major Loscombe and Miss Russell. You 
 clearly understand that I take you back also ; you 
 will therefore show yourself by ten o'clock on 
 Sunday morning, at the latest we must start at 
 half-past, having ordered dinner at home to be 
 ready at six o'clock. Sincerely yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 I killed five trout last night ; my friends killed 
 NONE ! ! !
 
 238 LETTERS. 
 
 TO SIR CHARLES CLARKE, BART. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 
 
 October 22nd, 1833. 
 
 MY DEAR CLARKE, 
 
 I am grieved to hear that you suffered 
 from gout in your toe ! pray attend to your 
 stomach, &c., keep the first in good humour fill 
 it full twice every day, leaving no room for gout 
 to enter; neglecting this, God only knows the 
 consequence. 
 
 Mrs. C. and I arrived here last Sunday night, 
 hearty, fat and well, having travelled near 1800 
 miles during the last ten weeks, dined every day 
 save two, which were supplied by five grains and 
 a half of opium, and a handful of chalk. 
 
 I wrote Mr. Coke last night, saying we 
 would be at Holkham on the first Monday in 
 November ; will it be convenient to Lady Clarke 
 to receive your Mud Head and us on our return ?
 
 LETTERS. 239 
 
 Of course I cannot name the precise day just 
 now ; but if we do not meet at Holkam (I hope 
 we shall), the detail of the plan must be settled by 
 letters. At all events, as you have nothing to do, 
 write to me. Truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 How am I to direct and forward the box of 
 clay ? Write your instructions plain, so that they 
 may be read, or employ somebody to write for 
 you ! I can't make out the name of your house. 
 
 TO GEORGE JONES, ESQ., R.A. 
 
 AUDLEY END, 25th Nov., 1833. 
 MY DEAR JONES, 
 
 You are rich! and know not how 
 to spend your money ! ! I therefore, without
 
 240 LETTERS. 
 
 remorse, request that you will, at the expense of 
 9c?., present my very sincere and affectionate 
 regards to Miss Russell. I am sure you believe 
 me when I tell you that I intentionally omitted 
 to mention her name in my last, that I might 
 have cause to trouble your purse without apology. 
 
 At the R. A. we went on Saturday to ballot for 
 the medals. Make yourself easy, and fatten until 
 you are as beastly as a Hampshire pig. Leave 
 the intellectual part to me. I am training down 
 until I become all mind and bone, that I may 
 speak for you, and against the books. I say again, 
 make yourself easy. / will attend on Saturday 
 next and do your duty. 
 
 Take care of yourself, and ride my horse 
 steadily none of your Hyde Park flourishes, if 
 you please. And further, let me tell you, that if 
 you injure the skin, or even the hair which grows 
 upon his knees, you shall pay for it. 
 
 We return to Belgrave Place on Thursday, but
 
 LETTERS. 241 
 
 we don't want to see you for a month : yet if you 
 are foolish enough to come to town on or before 
 Sunday next, we shall feel bound to give you a 
 dinner at six ; but you must put on silk stockings, 
 for you will meet Utterson and Mrs. Somerville. 
 
 Take my advice, Jones, and stay, stay at An- 
 dover, and we will try to be happy without you. 
 
 F. C. 
 
 TO MAJOR LOSCOMBE. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 
 
 16th March, 1834. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 After various consultations with our lean 
 friend, I have at last succeeded in extracting from 
 him advice how to act respecting my horse and 
 yourself. 
 
 He knows and I hope you will believe that
 
 242 LETTERS. 
 
 I am neither poor nor ostentatious, that I am not 
 too proud to accept a favour, and always happy in 
 the opportunity of making a grateful acknow- 
 ledgment. Now to business. 
 
 Jones has pronounced that I must send you 
 thirty guineas, neither more nor less, and here it 
 is enclosed, unless extracted before this letter 
 reach you. 
 
 My own feelings convince me that I am still 
 your debtor on account of board and lodging; but 
 as the gallant Captain has so ordered it, so be it 
 for I have no desire to boil his Welsh blood, or 
 to cool it even at the trifling expense of an ounce 
 of shot. 
 
 My cob is a capital fellow just like his master 
 good temper, strong and fat, rather shy of 
 strangers, but bears no malice to any living thing. 
 We differ only in one particular. He is active, I 
 used to be ! ! 
 
 Give my love freely to all the ladies, and until
 
 LETTERS. 243 
 
 I have the pleasure of seeing you at my dinner- 
 table when we will enter into a new compact 
 believe me, 
 
 Your faithful and obliged, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 TO C. H. TURNER, ESQ. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 
 26th May, 1835. (Bedtime.) 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 I wrote to you on Saturday, but could 
 not get a frank, so I burnt it, because I could 
 not then tell you all about my fishing scheme. 
 Now I can, on Thursday I dine with Lord 
 Rippon, then to a full dress ball at Lady 
 Lansdowne's, from which I shall start at one 
 o'clock on Friday morning in my travelling 
 carriage, sword and all, to Stockbridge, fish
 
 244 LETTERS. 
 
 away ten days, and return contented and happy, 
 and quite ready to attend the young ladies at 
 Rook's Nest, if they want me, not else ! 
 
 What will you give for my emerald? I have 
 got it ! ! ! There is no such thing in this world 
 as pleasure without some alloy. I did flatter 
 myself that I should be able to show specimens 
 with or against you immediately, but I am 
 disappointed. I cannot get the cabinets, although 
 I bought them for thirty pounds, the price 
 Heuland named, and paid for them; still I cannot 
 have them; so I have ordered new cabinets, 
 and must wait at least three months before I can 
 have the pleasure of seeing you thoroughly 
 unhappy on looking over my collection ! which 
 is so much, so very much finer than yours ! How 
 much will you give for my emerald? Last 
 Tuesday, this day week, Heuland and I set to 
 work, and between ten and five o'clock packed 
 fifteen hundred specimens, and with the assist-
 
 LETTERS. 245 
 
 ance of eight men they were all removed on 
 handbarrows to my house by six the same day, 
 we were tired; but I must stop, or I shall have 
 nothing to talk about when we meet at Rook's 
 
 Nest. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 P. S. Estimates and tenders have been made 
 for the Greenock Library upon Blore's approved 
 design; the highest is, 2,900/, the lowest, 2,400J, 
 all from good and respectable tradesmen. Here 
 end our friend Watt's troubles. Had he gone to 
 Blore at first, he would have had no trouble* 
 but then he would not have the pleasure he 
 now enjoys, and he would have been without 
 experience.
 
 246 LETTERS. 
 
 TO C. H. TURNER, ESQ. 
 
 BELGRAVE SQUARE, 22nd November, 1835. 
 10 o'clock, Sunday Evening. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 Your note is the only one I have opened 
 since I arrived ten minutes ago, and I prefer 
 answering it to opening others. 
 
 With regard to poor Sir Francis Freeling, do 
 what you please with me, and I will most gladly 
 do all in my power, but I am ignorant how he is, 
 and know not what may or may not be possible. 
 
 To raise expectations without the means of 
 fulfilling them at the instant may not be prudent ; 
 therefore let us first talk the matter over when 
 you come to town, if you come this week. 
 
 How are all your ladies ? 
 
 I left mine at three o' clock, something better 
 than when I took her to Brighton, but there is 
 much yet to be done before she is well, and I fear
 
 LETTEES. 247 
 
 may be tedious; however, so long as improve- 
 ment is evident, we have something to hope, 
 which makes time pass more pleasantly. 
 
 We have a very comfortable house, No. 26, 
 Regency Square, big enough to lodge your family, 
 but I am not allowed to use it; quiet, positive 
 quiet, being absolutely necessary, of this I am 
 convinced. Remember me very kindly at home. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 There ! this job is done, had I left it until 
 to-morrow, it might not have been done. 
 Breakfast every morning at 9, to half-past. 
 
 TO SIR CHARLES CLARKE, BART. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 28th August, 1836. 
 MY DEAR, BOY, 
 
 For boy you are in bodily activity, 
 appetite, digestion, and spirits; nor in these
 
 248 LETTEKS. 
 
 matters have I much to complain. In worldly 
 wisdom and knowledge of the frailties of the 
 body, you are my grandfather. Here I remain 
 making money. There you are, spending money 
 rationally, and therefore the wiser man of the 
 two. In health I am well, thank God (not the 
 doctors) ; for my wife, I wish I could say the 
 same. She is weak and nervous, more, I believe, 
 from the want of country air. 
 
 We have been from home only ten days, at 
 South-hill, and returned better ; since which we 
 have had Mr. and Mrs. Whitbread, with the two 
 girls, in our house for ten days. They left us on 
 Tuesday; and wife is much the worse. On 
 Wednesday we go to South-hill for a fortnight, 
 and then I expect she will be a little better, and 
 so we go on foolishly, I know ; but how am I 
 to act ? A lovely place in the country would 
 not much mend the matter what say you ? 
 Perhaps you may think that I am old enough
 
 LETTERS. 249 
 
 to judge for myself, but pray don't say so. I 
 shall indeed be grateful for your advice. 
 
 Pray remember us very kindly to Lady Clarke, 
 and all the young ladies. 
 
 Truly and sincerely yours, 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 TO MRS. CARRICK. 
 
 27th February, 1836. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. CARRICK AND THE Miss MOORES, 
 I am delighted that you have made 
 sure of living three weeks longer. 
 
 All I dare presume to say, in reply to your 
 distant dinner, is, that if my wife and I are alive 
 and in health, we will dine with you on the 
 18th of next month. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 M 3
 
 250 LETTERS. 
 
 TO SIR CHARLES CLARKE, BART. 
 
 HOLKHAM, 1837, Monday Evening. 
 
 I KILLED twenty-four hares, two rabbits, three 
 pheasants, seven partridges, walked six hours, and 
 not a bit tired. 
 
 MY DEAR DOCTOR, 
 
 A fig for you ! I am hearty and well, 
 nothing like prison allowance and the tread- 
 mill : only tasted one glass of my lady's table- 
 beer during my visit here, and that was all owing 
 to your promised visit here the next day. Rely- 
 ing on your putting all right, perhaps I may try 
 another on taking leave of the dinner-table next 
 Friday, and take my (own) chance of finding 
 you at home on our way to Norwich, respecting 
 the late Bishop's monument. We are told that 
 you are running after your dogs at Swaff ham ; 
 that your house is full of company, and that we
 
 LETTERS. 251 
 
 have but little chance of getting a sight of you ; 
 and should Lady Clarke be running after you, 
 be so good as to leave orders for my wife to be 
 indulged with bread, butter, and a glass of ale ; 
 for she has become a jolly fellow, I can assure 
 you. I never hear her complain except for 
 dinner, when it happens to be a little later than 
 the usual hour. 
 
 We intend to start about ten o'clock on Satur- 
 day morning. Our speed will depend upon 
 Norfolk post-horses. Sincerely yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 We left home on the 30th September, visited 
 Bangor, killed two salmon at Llanrwst, and 
 arrived here on the 28th October.
 
 252 LETTERS. 
 
 TO GEORGE JONES, ESQ., R.A. 
 
 HOLKHAM, 1st Nov., 1837. 
 DEAR JONES, 
 
 I do not expect to be in town much 
 before the meeting of parliament. I cannot there- 
 fore be present at the next election of associates, 
 and feeling deeply impressed with the importance 
 of such election, I am convinced that I cannot do 
 better than request you will insert such names as 
 you mean to vote for above my signature, on the 
 back of the President's letter, which is annexed, 
 and deliver it to him yourself, with my best 
 respects. 
 
 As far as I am able to judge from my own 
 feelings, I have benefited much in health during 
 this long journey, and so has my wife. 
 
 The week before last I was at Caernarvon, 
 killed two salmon in the Conway at Llanrwst, 
 and lived among Jones's for a fortnight, but I
 
 LETTERS. 253 
 
 drank no ale, nor did I eat roasted cheese ! 
 Yesterday *I killed twenty-eight hares, eight 
 pheasants, four partridges : total, forty head ! 
 Walked from ten o' clock until half-past four 
 without feeling the least fatigue. Did you ever 
 march as many hours in one day without fatigue ? 
 or kill the same number of men in the whole of 
 your life ? The day's sport returned 380 head, 
 fourteen guns. Yours truly, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 TO SIR ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 26th January, 1838. 
 DEAR SIR ROBERT, 
 
 I have much pleasure in complying with 
 your request, to note down such facts as remain 
 on my memory concerning the bust of Sir Walter
 
 254- LETTEES. 
 
 Scott, which you have done me the honour to 
 place in your collection at Drayton Manor. My 
 admiration of Scott as a poet and a man, induced 
 me, in the year 1820, to ask him to sit to me for 
 his bust. The only time I ever recollect having 
 asked a similar favour from any one. He agreed, 
 and I stipulated that he should breakfast with 
 me, always before his sitting, and never come 
 alone, nor bring more than three friends at once, 
 and that they should be all good talkers. That 
 he fulfilled the latter condition, you may guess, 
 when I tell you that on one occasion he came 
 with Mr. Croker, Mr. Heber, and the late Lord 
 Lyttelton. The marble bust produced from these 
 sittings was moulded, and about forty-five casts 
 were disposed of by me among the poet's most 
 ardent admirers this was all I had to do with 
 casts. The bust was pirated by Italians, and 
 England and Scotland, .and even the colonies, 
 were supplied with unpermitted and bad casts to
 
 LETTERS. 255 
 
 the extent of thousands, in spite of the terror of 
 an act of parliament ! 
 
 I made a copy in marble from this bust for the 
 Duke of Wellington ; it was sent to Apsley House 
 in March, 1827, and it is the only duplicate of my 
 bust of Sir Walter Scott that I ever executed in 
 marble. I now come to your bust of Scott. In 
 the year 1828, I proposed to the poet to present 
 the original marble as an heir-loom to Abbots- 
 ford, on condition that he would allow me sittings 
 sufficient to finish another marble from the life 
 for my own studio ; to this proposal he acceded, 
 and the bust was sent to Abbotsford accordingly, 
 with the following words inscribed on the back : 
 " This Bust of Sir Walter Scott was made in 
 1822 by Francis Chantrey, and presented by the 
 sculptor to the poet as a token of esteem, in 
 1828." 
 
 In the months of May and June in the same 
 year, 1828, Sir Walter fulfilled his promise, and
 
 256 LETTERS. 
 
 I finished from his face the marble bust now at 
 Drayton Manor a better sanctuary than my 
 studio, else I had not parted with it. The 
 expression is more serious than in the two former 
 busts, and the marks of age more than eight years 
 deeper. 
 
 I have now, I think, stated all that is worthy 
 of remembering about this bust, save that there 
 is no fear of piracy, for it has never been moulded. 
 Under all these circumstances, I assure you, my 
 dear sir, that it would have been very gratifying 
 to me to be allowed to deposit this bust in your 
 gallery on other terms than those of an ordinary 
 commission, a gratification, however, which your 
 liberality has denied to me. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 Dear Sir, &c., 
 
 F. CHANTREY.
 
 LETTERS. 257 
 
 TO MR. JONES. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 9th Feb., 1838. 
 
 DEAR JONES, 
 
 It would be waste of time and abuse of 
 common sense for you and I to repeat, much 
 more discuss, the principles which ought to guide 
 our vote because we agree. 
 
 I am so well aware of my own unfitness to 
 discuss the merits or character of any man, that 
 I have again and again resolved never to do so ; 
 because, when communicating even with a friend, 
 I am prone to speak much too bluntly, and with- 
 out reserve ; seeming to be more harsh than pru- 
 dent. This, I am well aware, is a fault; but I 
 am also aware that it arises from a total absence 
 at the moment (from my own mind) of all sus- 
 picion; and so it is, that, now and then, I am 
 misunderstood consequently, I feel the recoil 
 with double force, rebuke myself, and act cau-
 
 258 LETTERS. 
 
 tiously, until the next opportunity, and then play 
 the fool again. 
 
 So much for myself now to business private 
 friendship or private pique I disdain in the ab- 
 stract. The future good of the Institution it is 
 that troubles me ; and as my expectations in in- 
 dividuals have been disappointed more than once, 
 I have nothing more to say on this point. I want 
 
 " IRREPROACHABLE COMPETENT WORKING MEN." 
 
 TO BUCHANAN, ESQ. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 14th March, 1838. 
 SIR, 
 
 I have received your prospectus of an 
 Association for promoting the interests of the 
 Fine Arts. 
 
 It seems to me a sort of venture, and I never
 
 LETTERS. 259 
 
 engage in ventures of any kind, save in connec- 
 tion with my own professional exertions and the 
 arts of my own country. 
 
 Your object is to purchase, not the works of 
 native, but of foreign artists, therefore, as a 
 professional man, I have no right to interfere 
 in your project, as it more properly belongs to 
 the nobility and patrons of art than to me, as a 
 labourer in art; more particularly as the encou- 
 ragement of native talent has little or nothing to 
 do with its immediate results. 
 
 I remain, Sir, 
 Your very faithful servant, 
 
 F. CHANTREY.
 
 260 LETTERS. 
 
 TO C. H. TURNER, ESQ. 
 
 Tuesday Morning, 7 o'clock, 
 ]0th April, 1838. 
 
 IT is done ! ! ! and well done ! ! ! Had 
 it lasted for a few days longer it would have done 
 for me ! 
 
 I hope to meet man and horse in the East India 
 Dock soon after eleven to-day, and dine at Love- 
 grove's, when I have seen them on board the 
 
 "Asia." Come if you can. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 TO MR. JONES. 
 
 4th Sept., 1838. 
 
 MY DEAR JONES, 
 
 The moment you put your letter into my 
 servant's hands, I was sitting all alone, twirling 
 my thumbs for want of something to say or to do.
 
 LETTERS. 261 
 
 The R. A. on Thursday has induced me to put 
 off my long journey until Friday morning. 
 
 Early on Wednesday I shall run down to Ware, 
 twenty miles, and back on Thursday, in time for 
 the General Assembly, at eight o' clock. I feel this 
 
 to be both necessary and right. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 F. C. 
 
 TO C. H. TURNER, ESQ. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 You having done me the honour to con- 
 sult my judgment in the selection of a picture for 
 your staircase, I can now most conscientiously 
 say, that you will not readily meet with so fine a 
 picture as Etty's (Combat), if you like the subject. 
 The merit of the picture is unquestionable, and 
 its price surprisingly low. Three hundred guineas. 
 Artists and judges of art expected he would have
 
 262 LETTERS. 
 
 asked six hundred guineas AT LEAST ; its size alone 
 stood in the way of various purchasers. 
 
 I have strongly recommended it to Mr. Watt ; 
 and I wish some of my friends may have the good 
 
 fortune to possess it. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 TO MR. JONES. 
 
 DEAR JONES, 
 
 I expected to have seen you at the R. A. 
 to-night. I particularly wished to have seen you, 
 for I want to know if it suits your convenience, or 
 your inclination, to go with me to Brighton on 
 Saturday, by coach from Charing-cross, at two 
 o'clock, military time. Now mind, let me have 
 no humbug ; if you have the least inclination, say 
 so, and convince me that you are a sincere man, as 
 well as a gentleman.
 
 LETTERS. 263 
 
 There is a bed, six feet long by two feet six 
 inches wide, unoccupied ; a hearty welcome from 
 Mrs. Chantrey, and a cheerful companion in me, 
 F. C. I shall return on Wednesday. It is also 
 my intention to do the same thing on the Satur- 
 day following, and return on the Wednesday 
 after. 
 
 Now, I care not a whether you go next 
 
 Saturday or the Saturday following but go you 
 MUST ; so please yourself, if you can, and give me 
 a plain and short answer by the bearer, that I may 
 
 act accordingly. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 F. C. 
 
 TO SIR CHARLES CLARKE, BART. 
 
 HOLKHAM, November, 1839. 
 DEAR CLARKE, 
 
 I am surprised beyond measure at the 
 way you rusticate; you must live very abste-
 
 264 LETTERS. 
 
 miously, only one dinner a day ! hardly enough 
 to keep soul and body together ! ! but then, to be 
 sure, you have the addition of fresh air ! ! ! Now, 
 as I feel a strong desire to serve a faithful young 
 man, I shall make a point of voting at the 
 Academy on Saturday, to accomplish which I 
 shall start on Friday morning, feeling sure you 
 will do very well without my bothering you on 
 Thursday night. Lord Leicester has just sent 
 for me. Wife must finish. F. C. 
 
 TO MR. TURNER. 
 
 BELGRATE PLACE, 1st December, 1839. 
 MY DEAR MR. AND MRS. TURNER, 
 
 So, Mr. Turner ! you are tormented 
 with a touch of the gout ! ! I dare say yon 
 deserved it ! ! ! Cheltenham waters, indeed ! 
 Brandy would be more likely to agree with 
 your spare habit of body. Take warning in
 
 LETTERS. 265 
 
 time, and live more generously, as Mr. Watt and 
 /do. 
 
 We arrived from Holkham, last night, well. 
 No Gout, no Cheltenham waters. I now feel 
 equal to finishing the Queen's bust, and giving 
 you a breakfast, whenever Mrs. Turner will give 
 you leave to partake of it. 
 
 In compliance with your command, I send you 
 this, just to satisfy you that I am myself again, 
 and, with our kind remembrances to Mrs. Turner, 
 I am, sincerely yours, 
 
 F. CHANTKEY. 
 
 j 
 
 We have been absent three weeks and three 
 days, during which time I have received no 
 letters! But the day of reckoning is now 
 arrived, and I discharge my debt to you first.
 
 266 LETTEKS. 
 
 TO JAMES DUNLOP, ESQ. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 24th March, 1840. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 Is your face fit for me to look at just 
 now? If not, when will it be in proper con- 
 dition ? I am now fixed in town for good, and 
 still improving in health. 
 
 Order Jane to write to me, and answer my 
 question; and remember me very kindly to 
 Mrs. Dunlop. 
 
 My wife is very poorly, and has been so for 
 upwards of three weeks, or you would have seen 
 her ere this. She has arrived at the perfection 
 of a fine lady, ill in bed all the day, and out 
 
 every evening. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY.
 
 LETTERS. 267 
 
 TO MISS MOORE. 
 
 19th May, 1840. 7 o'clock, A. M. 
 
 MY DEAR HARRIET, 
 
 If I had a plaster bust of myself, (or 
 any dear friend,) that had been stained with sea- 
 water on the cheek, or even on the nose, I should 
 apply to Thomas Jones, one of the Queen's beef- 
 eaters, and landlord of the Crown and Anchor 
 public-house, corner of Eccleston Street, and 
 who may be found in the workshop of a man 
 known by the name of Chantrey. 
 
 Tell papa that the Duke has discovered that in 
 England, or even in Scotland, no artist can be 
 found worthy of the Glasgow Commission, there- 
 fore it must be offered to Thorwaldsen of Rome ! 
 If Thorwaldsen should not be able to cast it, 
 what then ? No matter ! 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 
 
 N2
 
 268 LETTERS. 
 
 TO SIR CHARLES M. CLARKE, BART. 
 
 Friday Morning, 5 o'clock. 
 
 MY DEAR CLARKE, 30th April, 1841. 
 
 If I could have commanded resolution, 
 you would have heard from me some time ago. 
 My BODILY suffering has now become intolerable, 
 and my spirits are broken down. 
 
 I regret much that I happened to be from 
 home when you kindly called yesterday. Where 
 and when can you best spare me ten minutes ? 
 Will you admit me any time on Sunday next ? 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 TO JAMES DUNLOP, ESQ. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 
 MY DEAR SIR, 15th July, 1841. 
 
 The exhibition will close the week after 
 next, when I will wait upon you with the bust,
 
 LETTEES. 269 
 
 and try, with the help of the ladies, if a good 
 light can be found in your room, for I have 
 seldom placed my name upon any of my works 
 with more satisfaction than upon this bust. I 
 have, I find, to thank you for 150 guineas which 
 you have, or Mrs. Dunlop in your name, paid 
 me, and which I beg to acknowledge as the price 
 of the bust. 
 
 I fear, from the various reports that have 
 reached me, you have been a sad sufferer like 
 myself, nor can I boast of being much better. 
 
 Pray remember me most kindly to the ladies. 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 P.S. I am on the point of starting for Derby- 
 shire for a week or ten days.
 
 270 LETTERS. 
 
 TO SIR CHARLES M. CLARKE, BART. 
 
 BELGRAVE PLACE, 30th October, 1841. 
 
 MY DEAR CLARKE, 
 
 I am fully sensible that I have com- 
 mitted the sin of ingratitude in appearance 
 certainly for I have not answered either of 
 your very kind letters, nor dare I trust myself 
 to do so now ; I cannot write about that which 
 I do not understand self. I shall therefore rely 
 on your good sense and kind heart until we 
 meet. 
 
 We have promised to be at Holkham on the 
 8th or 9th of November ; will you let me hear 
 from you there ? 
 
 Pray remember us most kindly to Lady Clarke 
 and the young ladies. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY.
 
 LETTERS. 271 
 
 TO SIR CHARLES M. CLARKE, BART. 
 
 HOLKHAM, 14th November, 1841. 
 
 MY DEAR CLARKE, 
 
 If you could be aware of the pleasure 
 I received on opening your note on my arrival 
 here last Tuesday evening, I am sure you would 
 not grudge the trouble it cost you to write it, 
 I shall ever look upon it as a kind and humane 
 act, for I am in a sad shattered condition ! I 
 dare not trust myself to say more about MYSELF. 
 If this find you at Dunham, pray say so, that 
 I may contrive to shake you by the hand as I 
 pass by. Nothing has been said yet about our 
 departure, but I am in daily expectation of the 
 arrival of the statue of the late Bishop of Norwich. 
 (I fear it was at sea last night, as the vessel 
 sailed on Thursday or Friday.)
 
 272 LETTERS. 
 
 My servant reports post-time. Kindest regards 
 to everybody belonging to your family. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY. 
 
 TO SIR CHARLES M. CLARKE, BART. 
 
 ROYAL HOTEL, NORWICH. 
 
 22nd November, 1841. 
 
 MY DEAR CLARKE, 
 
 The short, but important conversation 
 which we had together on Friday last, made a 
 deep impression on my mind; something must be 
 done without delay, and I have resolved on 
 returning to town forthwith, and with the 
 determination of advising with my friends on the 
 first step to be taken. What that step may be, I 
 will not at this moment venture to predict; but 
 you will relieve me from some embarrassment, if
 
 LETTERS. 273 
 
 you will give me leave to report progress ! 
 Having settled all needful matters respecting the 
 Bishop's statue, I shall be off to town to-morrow 
 morning, sleep at Chesterford, and home on 
 Wednesday. Will you be in town at the Bailey 
 dinner? and on what day does it take place? We 
 are invited to Audley End on the 8th December. 
 The statue will have a good light upon it in 
 the Cathedral, and I doubt not will look well ! 
 God bless you, 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 F. CHANTREY.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 SIR HENRY RUSSELL gives the following inter- 
 esting account " My first intercourse with Sir 
 Francis, then Mr. Chantrey, took place nearly 
 twenty-five years ago. It began by my sitting to 
 him in 1822, for a bust, which some friends, with 
 whom I had been engaged in public duty in India, 
 expressed a wish to have made by him. He had 
 already given up executing busts on private 
 orders ; but he was still willing to undertake such 
 as were required for public purposes. I was then 
 living at Chelsea, not far from the house occupied 
 by him at Pimlico ; and on the day we were to 
 begin, he appointed me to breakfast with him. 
 My father joined us from London, while we were
 
 276 APPENDIX. 
 
 still at table, and, after some time, he asked Sir 
 Francis when he intended to begin ? ' Begin ? ' 
 said Sir Francis, 'Why, I have begun. I have 
 been at work all the morning, and I am at work 
 now/ The first day, he only made a rough 
 sketch of the face, using for the purpose an 
 instrument with a tube, through which he looked, 
 while, with a pencil fixed in one arm of it, he 
 traced an outline of the full size on paper. When 
 my father and I saw the sketch, we both said, it 
 surely had no resemblance, and Sir Francis 
 answered, * No, I neither expect nor desire that 
 it should have any, but it gives me all I want ; it 
 gives me the relative distance and position of the 
 bony prominences, and enables me to prepare 
 the clay. A cast taken after death does the same, 
 and it does no more ; the surface of the face has 
 been already changed by the collapse of the 
 muscles, and the character of it is not the same, 
 therefore, after death that it was before/
 
 APPENDIX. 27 7 
 
 I went to Chantrey every second or third day, 
 while the model continued in hand, and, I think, 
 he took six or seven sittings. He seemed to like 
 to have a third person present, to whom he often 
 referred upon the effect of what he was doing. 
 Sometimes my father, or my brother met me, 
 and sometimes a friend of the sculptor's among 
 the artists came in, Mr. Jones, the painter of 
 military pictures, and whom Sir Francis said, on 
 that account, as well as because he had been in 
 the army, they called Captain Jones. The sitting, 
 instead of being an effort, was a treat ; I never 
 passed a more agreeable time than I spent under 
 his hands. His conversation was at once amusing 
 and instructive. Having walked through life with 
 his eyes and ears open, and having been brought 
 into intercourse with many eminent men, he had 
 both seen and heard much to be remembered. 
 I found him even fond of talking of the humble- 
 ness of his own origin. The feeling that he took
 
 278 APPENDIX. 
 
 from it was one of pride, and not of shame. He 
 felt what he was, and was proud of comparing it 
 with what he had been. His estimate of his own 
 success, came less from seeing the high ground 
 he then stood upon, than from measuring how far 
 he had climbed to get there. He knew that his 
 real position was not where his birth had placed 
 him, but where he had placed himself. I never 
 conversed with any man whose native powers of 
 mind appeared to me more vigorous than his 
 were. He was capable of distinguishing himself 
 in any course that he had followed, and would 
 have made almost as good an anything else, as he 
 had made a sculptor. 
 
 In going from the parlour to the studio, our 
 way lay through a passage, on both sides of 
 which, there were shelves covered with his models 
 of busts. In one corner stood a head of Milton's 
 Satan, uttering, with a scornful expression, his 
 address to the Sun. Sir Francis said, 'That
 
 APPENDIX. 279 
 
 head was the very first thing that I did after 
 I came to London. I worked at it in a garret, 
 with a paper cap on my head, and, as I could then 
 afford only one candle, I stuck that one in my 
 cap, that it might move along with me, and give 
 me light which ever way I turned/ This led 
 to the Address itself, and, as my father repeated 
 it, Sir Francis said, ' he had made him under- 
 stand one line, which he now found he had never 
 understood before/ 
 
 " Till pride, and worse ! ambition threw me down," 
 
 in all our editions of Milton's works, instead of 
 being printed as an exclamation, as it manifestly 
 ought to be, is made a feeble epithet of ambition. 
 Sir Francis said, it was that head that first 
 brought him into notice. I have no doubt it had 
 merit ; everything that he did had merit in some 
 degree or other ; but, being taken from his fancy, 
 and not from his observation, I should say that it
 
 280 APPENDIX. 
 
 was one of the works in which he had been less 
 successful than usual ; and I should say the same, 
 and for the same reason, of two relievos from 
 Homer, which, I think, he was then doing, or did 
 soon after for the Duke of Bedford. 
 
 Among these models, the two that struck me 
 most were busts of Home Tooke, and a deaf 
 man. Home Tooke was represented in a cap 
 like a nightcap. I had not seen him since I saw 
 him standing for Westminster against Mr. Fox 
 and Sir Alan Gardner, twenty-five years before, 
 and his face, therefore, had got much longer, and 
 more furrowed by age; but it was still full of 
 life and character, of that sort of life and charac- 
 ter which were peculiar to him, and to which 
 Coleridge refers when he calls him ' a stern, 
 iron man/ Chantrey had evidently conceived a 
 high opinion of Home Tooke' s powers, and always 
 spoke of him with great respect. At the other 
 bust it was impossible to look without seeing
 
 APPENDIX. 281 
 
 immediately that it represented a deaf man. 
 I said I supposed that the expression of deafness 
 was produced by the head being turned so as to 
 present one ear towards your mouth. Sir Francis 
 said that it was partly that, but that the expres- 
 sion of deafness was conveyed principally by the 
 mouth. ' If you observe a deaf man's mouth, 
 you will always find the lips unclosed when he is 
 attending to you ; they are opened to give your 
 voice access to the throat, through which some 
 of the sound is received, and reaches the drum, 
 in assistance of the ear/ The two busts, and 
 the ' Head of Satan/ are, of course, in the col- 
 lection of Sir Francis's works, which has been 
 munificently given to the country by Lady 
 Chantrey. 
 
 Of the works he was then engaged upon, the 
 one that I most admired was a monument 
 to a gentleman, I think of the name of 
 Kinnersley. It consisted of a single figure of the
 
 282 APPENDIX. 
 
 size of life, recumbent, with the right hand upon 
 an open Bible on the lap, and the face turned 
 upwards. The expression was at once dignified 
 and easy, with striking calmness and devotion in 
 both the attitude and the countenance. The 
 figure was finished, but nothing was yet inscribed 
 upon the Bible ; and one day that my father and 
 I were talking as to what would be a suitable 
 text, Sir Francis, who was just then called out of 
 the room, desired us to consider, and tell him 
 when he returned what had struck us. The 
 same passage simultaneously occurred to us both ; 
 and when we suggested, ' I know that my 
 Redeemer liveth/ Sir Francis said he was glad 
 to find he had succeeded in giving his figure the 
 expression of the very text that he intended. 
 The monument was erected, I think, in one of 
 the northern counties. 
 
 His great triumph was in busts. They were 
 alive. He had no rival there. I saw none
 
 APPENDIX. 283 
 
 superior to them in Rome. He had set 
 his heart upon transmitting down his name 
 by a colossal statue, to be carved by him out 
 of the solid rock. For this purpose he had 
 already fixed upon a rock, of which the shape 
 and position pleased him, I think in Derbyshire, 
 and he said he should like to think he might 
 leave such a lasting memorial of himself in his 
 native county. 
 
 I observed that in some of his busts the 
 pupils of the eyes were marked, and others 
 had the ball of the eye left plain. At this 
 very time he was engaged on busts of George the 
 Fourth and the Duke of Wellington, and he 
 had marked the pupils of the eyes in the Duke's 
 bust, and not those in the bust of the King. I 
 asked him what it was that guided him in making 
 the distinction? He said, f ln the expression 
 of some faces the eyes are the feature that takes 
 the lead. When that is the case, I mark the
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 pupils, when it is otherwise I do not ; and a very 
 simple experiment always decides which should 
 be done.' 
 
 On the second occasion that Mr. Jones came, 
 he took advantage of his being there, and desired 
 us to walk about for a few minutes, while he tried 
 the effect of marking the pupils on his model. 
 When he had done it he called us back. I told 
 him that, as far as I was capable of forming an 
 opinion, I liked the bust better before the eyes 
 were marked, and Mr. Jones said the same. He 
 said, ' You are right, the marks won't do ;' and 
 he immediately removed them. 
 
 In the progress of his model with me, it was 
 of the lips only that Sir Francis made a cast ; he 
 said he did so, because in the lips, and in them 
 only, colour interfered with form, by producing 
 the effect of light and shade. In speaking of the 
 Elgin marbles, he mentioned a striking instance 
 of the effect produced by colour. When he first
 
 APPENDIX. 285 
 
 saw them in the British Museum, he was disap- 
 pointed. They were much stained by long expo- 
 sure, and the stains acting as shadows, so much 
 intercepted the effect of form, that it was some 
 time before he could justly appreciate it. At last 
 he did get over this impediment ; his admiration 
 was then great, and he found that the marbles 
 fully deserved the praise which had been given to 
 them. They were matchless. 
 
 The habitual temper of Chantrey's mind, I 
 found, was cheerful ; his conversation with me was 
 always of a lively, buoyant, and even of a sportive 
 character. One day, some subject that was intro- 
 duced had imperceptibly led us into a graver 
 tone. Sir Francis at last remarked it ; ' Come/ 
 he said, 'this won't do. We began saucily, and 
 it has hitherto succeeded so well with us, that we 
 must go on in the same spirit/ 
 
 To a question of mine, if he remembered an 
 ancient sitting statue of Demosthenes, in the
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Louvre, he answered that he did, and that it was 
 an uncommonly fine one. I asked if he had not 
 remarked a very happy inclination of the bust, 
 which struck me as producing a strong expression 
 of the debility of age. He said that he well 
 remembered the expression I spoke of, but that I 
 was mistaken in referring it to the inclination of 
 the bust. It was not produced by the bust, nor 
 by any other individual member, but was a 
 general result from the skilful and consentaneous 
 management of the whole body. 
 
 One day that we were talking of groups, he 
 said the difficulty of producing them had hitherto 
 proved insurmountable. Neither ancients nor 
 moderns had ever yet succeeded in a single 
 instance. "We had not yet learned how to make 
 single figures, and, until we could do that, we had 
 better not think of meddling with groups. We 
 asked him how he disposed of the Laocoon ? He 
 said, "The instance you have cited is the verv
 
 APPENDIX. 287 
 
 thing calculated to sustain my position. I do 
 not admit that the Laocoon is a group. It is a 
 statue of the father : the sons are there not as 
 principals ; they are subordinate in size and infe- 
 rior in position. They are not small as children, 
 they are little men ; they are put where they are, 
 as mere accessories to tell the story. The 
 sculptor knew too well what he was about to 
 mean them for anything else. If he had dared 
 to attempt a group, he would have made them all 
 three upon the same scale.' 
 
 The subject of craniology being mentioned, I 
 asked him whether conversant as his pursuits 
 had necessarily made him with the shape and 
 structure of heads he thought he had found 
 any truth in the doctrine of Gall and Spurzheim, 
 and, especially, whether he had observed any 
 reason to suppose that the intellect lay more in 
 the front or the back part of the head? He 
 said, ' Yes ; I have examined a good many heads
 
 288 APPENDIX. 
 
 of various kinds in my day. I am not prepared 
 to say that it signifies much whether the brains 
 lie before or behind, but there is one thing, and 
 only one, that I am quite sure of, and that is, 
 that a head is good for nothing if it has not room 
 for them somewhere or other/ 
 
 Sir F. Chantrey had then never executed an 
 equestrian statue, but it was a subject to which 
 he had evidently given great attention, and of 
 which he often talked. He said, ' It is very 
 extraordinary that no sculptor, either ancient or 
 modern, has yet attempted to show a horse in 
 repose ; and yet it is in repose only that he can 
 be truly represented in marble. You cannot give 
 a lasting duration to that which is in its nature 
 transitory.' He was sure it would have a better 
 effect to plant the horse upon all four legs, and 
 to produce a character of energy by the general 
 management of the whole figure. This was 
 evidently a favourite project with him; and he
 
 APPENDIX. 289 
 
 long after carried it into effect. His first eques- 
 trian statue, I believe, was that of Sir Thomas 
 Munro, which was sent to Madras. My brother 
 went to see it before it was shipped, with a friend 
 of his, who had been employed under Sir Thomas 
 in India. It was shown to them by Mr. Cun- 
 ningham, who told them that Sir F.Chantrey, while 
 meditating this statue, had one day said to him, 
 'I hate fine words, particularly mawkish words 
 like 'sentiment ;' but I do not know where to find 
 another to ask you whether you were never 
 struck with the ' sentiment 7 of a horse standing 
 still in a field, and looking about him : if I can 
 hit that I shall do.' 
 
 When Sir F. Chantrey began to work upon 
 his clay-model with me, the head stood square 
 upon the shoulders, and the whole bust was 
 fronting him. It was only after he had 
 finished the features that he said he would give 
 the requisite turn to the head. To do this, he
 
 290 APPENDIX. 
 
 merely threw a piece of common pack-thread 
 round the neck, and, by drawing it tight, he at 
 once cut through the clay to a piece of stick 
 which had been fixed in the middle of it, to 
 support the head ; he next clasped the head 
 between his hands, and it was easily and imme- 
 diately turned until he was satisfied with its 
 position. He then, with the pressure of his 
 fingers, closed the cut which the string had made, 
 and the whole process took only a few minutes. 
 In forming the surface of the throat, he followed 
 his own fancy; he never required me to take 
 my stock off once. The drapery of the bust he 
 copied from a wet cloth which he threw loosely 
 over a frame that he had by him for the purpose, 
 and of which he corrected some of the folds where 
 he thought them minute or unseemly. This 
 appears to be a simple process, but a little 
 observation of it shows that it requires both taste 
 and skill. In speaking of the model in sculpture,
 
 APPENDIX. 291 
 
 it is not, perhaps, generally known that the clay 
 on which the sculptor forms his work, and which 
 is, in truth, therefore, the original model, is not, 
 and cannot be, kept after it is finished. If the 
 clay is once suffered to get dry, different parts of 
 it contract in different degrees, and the proper 
 proportions are destroyed. That which is kept, 
 therefore, and which is called the model, is, in 
 truth, only the first cast in plaster. As long as 
 the clay continues to be worked upon, it is kept 
 moist by a wet cloth constantly lying over it. 
 When it has been brought into its final form, it 
 is covered all over with a thick coating of plaster, 
 and, as soon as the plaster has got dry and firm, 
 the clay is picked out piecemeal. The cavity left 
 in the plaster has then, in its turn, become a 
 mould, and is filled with other plaster, which 
 forms what becomes at last the model to be 
 preserved. From that model the copy in marble 
 is executed, not by the sculptor himself, but by 
 
 o2
 
 292 APPENDIX. 
 
 his workmen, who, in the use of their chisel, are 
 guided by an instrument applied to the surface of 
 the stone, their office being exclusively one of 
 mechanical rule and measure. 
 
 In the construction of this instrument, Sir 
 Francis told me he had himself made considerable 
 improvements. When the process of covering the 
 marble has been finished, the sculptor himself 
 goes over it finally, and gives it its completion 
 with his own chisel. For this, Sir Francis took 
 only one sitting, and he then said, he had never 
 done anything before in which he had been so 
 uninterruptedly successful ; from the very begin- 
 ning he had not had to go back once, to correct 
 or alter anything. At the same time, he was 
 making a bust of Dr. Barriugton, the Bishop of 
 Durham, and, as the head of an old man, and 
 therefore strongly marked, I should have thought 
 that it was an easy head to copy ; but for some 
 reason, which he could not explain, Chantrey
 
 APPENDIX. 293 
 
 .said he had begun ill, and for some time con- 
 tinued to go on ill ; until, at last, he was obliged 
 to destroy all that he had done, and begin again 
 anew ; and ' here we are at the end of this bust, 
 without a single flaw either in the marble. This 
 is altogether good luck, for which no care can 
 provide. In choosing a block for the King, you 
 may be sure, that I chose the best I could; I 
 would not, if I could have helped it, have 
 given you a better block than I had given him ; 
 yet, before I had finished my work at the Palace, 
 I found the King's marble had a flaw in it.' 
 
 At the same time, and under the same circum- 
 stances already referred to, a vase having been 
 ordered to be made by Rundell and Bridge, 
 Chantrey was consulted upon the design to be 
 adopted for it, and he proved to be quite as much 
 at home, as we expected him to be, on an occa- 
 sion, in some measure, akin to his own pursuits. 
 He at once saw what was wanted, and knew
 
 294 APPENDIX. 
 
 where to look for it, and I relate what passed to 
 show, as well the cordial interest he had the 
 good nature to take, as the useful assistance he 
 found time to afford in so small an object. He first 
 chose a plate in Piranesi, from which he recom- 
 mended that the form of the vase should be 
 taken. He then proposed that two different 
 groups, capable of telling the story of what had 
 led to the presentation of the vase, should be placed 
 on the two sides of it, and that for the designs 
 of those groups, Mr. Stothard should be applied 
 to; he said that a design to serve such a pur- 
 pose well, required a peculiar aptitude, it by no 
 means followed, because it answered as a drawing, 
 that it would therefore succeed as a relievo. Mr. 
 Stothard understood the process, and would do it 
 better than any one else. He suggested, as 
 suited to an Indian subject, that a tiger should 
 be placed on the centre of the lid, and elephants 3 
 heads at the four angles of the pedestals ; and
 
 APPENDIX. 295 
 
 instead of the imaginary serpent given in Piranesi 
 over each handle, that a real serpent should be 
 modelled from the life. f ln works of art/ he 
 said, ' as in every thing else, always adhere as 
 closely as you can to truth and nature/ I am 
 the more particular in repeating this injunction, 
 as the principle of it constitutes one of the 
 leading rules, which he will be found to have 
 followed in all his works. When Mr. Stothard's 
 designs, and a drawing of the whole vase by 
 Burney, a well-known artist of the day, were 
 submitted to Sir Francis, he approved entirely of 
 the two designs, and of Mr. Burney's drawing. 
 The single addition he made, was of a curvature 
 at the extremity of the elephant's trunk, in which, 
 although he could have seen little of the living 
 elephant, he not only improved the beauty of the 
 design, but brought it also nearer to the real 
 form and habit of the animal. He said, the 
 pedestal might sometimes be used without the
 
 296 APPENDIX. 
 
 vase, to hold a basket of flowers for the middle 
 of the table, and to show what he meant, he 
 made a hasty sketch with a pen, which, as well as 
 Mr. Stothard's designs, I still retain. For the 
 completion of the pattern, the tiger, the elephant's 
 head, and the serpent, were very successfully 
 modelled from the life, by Mr. Bailey, the R. A. 
 But when the vase itself was finished and gilt, 
 there was evidently some defect in it, though 
 none of us could distinguish in what it consisted. 
 Sir Francis, however, was at no loss : when it was 
 shown to him, he said directly, that the lower 
 department of the pedestal, which had been 
 burnished, ought to have been kept dull, and that 
 alteration alone, simple as it was, at once and 
 entirely removed the defect. . 
 
 One day that I called, I observed a sitting 
 statue in one corner of the gallery, which 
 I immediately recognised as representing Dr. 
 Anderson of Madras, though it was then many
 
 APPENDIX. 297 
 
 years since I had seen him. Sir Francis 
 said, he was glad to hear that I had discovered 
 a likeness, as he had had the picture from 
 which the statue had been copied very long by 
 him, and had always been reluctant to begin 
 upon it, under some unaccountable feeling that 
 he should not be successful. The statue, which 
 was both a good one, and bore a strong resem- 
 blance, was sent, I believe, as a monument to 
 Madras, 
 
 Just before calling upon Sir F. Chantrey, my 
 brother had been to see the models exhibited by 
 the different artists who had entered into com- 
 petition for the Nelson Monument. Sir Francis 
 himself had not sent in any design ; he said he 
 never would enter into competition for any work ; 
 it was a schoolboy process: but his mind was 
 evidently full of the subject. Almost immediately 
 after my brother went in, ' So/ he said, ' we are 
 to have a column for the Nelson Monument ; they
 
 298 APPENDIX. 
 
 are all wrong, and I have told them so. I do not 
 mean to say that a column is not a fine thing ; in 
 itself it is a very fine thing ; the taste of ages has 
 proved that it is so, and any man would be a 
 fool who attempted to deny it. But is it a thing 
 suited to your purpose ? Now what is your pur- 
 pose ? To perpetuate the memory of a great man. 
 Then durability is the quality you should look 
 for. Those gimcrack things you say you have 
 been to see of stone and metal combined, will 
 never stand ; the stone and metal will never hold 
 together. Make a column as solid as you will, 
 make it of blocks of stone piled like Dutch cheeses 
 upon one another, still the stone will crumble, 
 and vegetation will take place in the joints. 
 Besides, columns have got vulgarised in this 
 country. The steam chimneys in every smoky 
 manufacturing town supply you with columns 
 by the dozen. In a country like Egypt it is 
 quite a different thing. A column or an obelisk
 
 APPENDIX. 299 
 
 is a fine object there ; with a flat all round you, 
 as far as your eye can reach, you are glad of any 
 thing to break the uniformity of the long straight 
 line that joins the earth to the sky, and you can 
 see them fifty miles off; but huddled in such a 
 town as London, a column will be lost. It will 
 give you a crick in your neck to look up at it. 
 By the bye/ he said, ( did you ever see my 
 obelisk ?' My brother told him he had not. 
 ' Then put on your hat/ he said, ' and come 
 along with me.' They walked together to a 
 short distance, and as they went, Sir Francis 
 told him that a neighbour of his had consulted 
 him about a chimney for a steam-engine that he 
 was going to build. Now, he said, a chimney 
 must be tall, and it must be slender; and the 
 advice he had given was, that the best models 
 of antiquity having those qualities should be 
 resorted to; but by this time they had reached 
 a spot from which Sir Francis pointed to an
 
 300 APPENDIX. 
 
 obelisk. ' There/ he said, f that is my chimney ; 
 it is 180 feet high, and of exactly the same pro- 
 portions as Cleopatra's needle. It is the most 
 beautiful chimney in England, and I may say so, 
 as I did not design it ; but though I did not 
 design it, at least I knew where to look for it/ 
 He said he had been consulted about a column 
 of Portland stone, and had been asked whether 
 it would much obstruct the view in Trafalgar 
 Square ? ' Why no/ he had said, ' I do not 
 think it will obstruct the view much, and at all 
 events, if it is made of Portland stone it will not 
 obstruct it long, 3 The idea of durability had 
 taken possession of his mind as the first and 
 greatest quality to be sought for in a national 
 monument. ' As you know/ he said, ' the 
 tanner is always for leather. I have told them 
 that a bronze statue of Nelson is what they 
 ought to raise. Nothing will destroy a bronze 
 statue but violence. Let it be as fine and as large
 
 APPENDIX. 301 
 
 a statue as your money will afford, and you may 
 put it upon a granite pedestal/ On one occa- 
 sion, speaking of allegory, Chantrey said, ' I hate 
 allegory, it is a clumsy way of telling a story. 
 You may put a book on the lap of one female, 
 and call her History ; a pair of compasses in the 
 hand of another, and call her Science; and a 
 trumpet to the mouth of a third, and call her 
 Fame, or Victory. But these are imaginary 
 beings that we have nothing in common with, 
 and dress them out as you will for the eye, they 
 can never touch the heart; all our feelings are 
 with men like ourselves. To produce any real 
 effect, we must copy man, we must represent his 
 actions, and display his emotions/ This was the 
 rule that he always had steadily in view. I do 
 not remember, that in any of his monuments, he 
 has adopted even the figure of an angel. He was 
 always sparing in the use of emblems ; except 
 now and then the Bible, flowers, and his own
 
 302 APPENDIX. 
 
 beautiful image of the broken lily for a child. 
 The last time that I saw Sir F. Chantrey, a few 
 weeks only before his death, he sent for the model 
 of the bust, and said, ' Let us now see what time 
 has all this while been doing/ It was then 
 upwards of twenty years since it had been made. 
 After attentively comparing the bust with the 
 face for some time, he applied his finger to his 
 own nostril, and said, ' Ah, here it is, what was 
 sharp in all these edges has now become blunt/ 
 Mr. Moore, the poet, came in just after, and 
 another gentleman with him. Pointing to one 
 among the models, Mr. Moore said, ' That is the 
 bust of Mr. Pitt/ ' No/ answered Sir Francis, 
 ' I see what has misled you ; but if you look 
 again, you will find that there is nothing here 
 of the sauciness of Mr. Pitt/ Sir Francis was 
 always judicious in mitigating the peculiarities of 
 the faces he had to deal with ; adhering to them 
 as long as they served the purpose of character-
 
 APPENDIX. 303 
 
 istica ; but taking care to leave them before they 
 fell into caricature. This, I am aware, I may be 
 told, is, or, at least, ought to be, the practice of 
 every artist ; but though every artist knows what 
 ought to be done, it is not every one that knows 
 how it is to be done. Sir Francis, as a master of 
 his art, knew to what extent the truth was to be 
 vigorously adhered to, and at what point a certain 
 deviation became not only justifiable, but expe- 
 dient. It was a principle with him that every 
 face had its peculiarities, and that the difference 
 between a good artist and a bad one, consisted in 
 this, that a good artist retained his likeness, while 
 he softened those peculiarities, and a bad artist 
 secured his by exaggerating them. In the model 
 noticed by Mr. Moore, his comparison had been 
 suggested by the receding of the mouth and chin 
 from the nose, though the angle had been quitted 
 before it became so acute as to be unseemly. 
 One day that I called on Mr. Cunningham
 
 301 APPENDIX. 
 
 after Sir Francis Chantrey's death, he told me 
 that the Duke of Wellington had been to see the 
 model of the equestrian statue of Sir Thomas 
 Munro, soon after it was finished. The Duke 
 had looked at it attentively for some time, without 
 making any remark ; but at last he said earnestly, 
 ' A very fine horse ; ' after a pause, ' A very fine 
 statue/ and again, after another pause, ' and a 
 very extraordinary man/ The Duke had known 
 Sir Thomas Munro in India." 
 
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