CIIANTREY, SIR FRANCIS, was bora on the 7th of April 1782, at Nortoo, in Derbyshire, where his father was a farmer. Chantrey'a father wished to make an attorney of him, but he preferred being an artist, and his predilection was for carving. He wen accordiugly bound for three years to a carver at Sheffield ; but during the time of his apprenticeship he found that it was a style of work which afforded Intl° scope for Ins true love for art, and he therefore turned his atten tion to modelling in clay. lie tried his fortune as a modeller, first in Dublin, then In Edinburgh, and lastly in London. In London, Nolle kus was greatly instrumental in promoting Chantrey 's fortunes. The young sculptor (he was then four-and-twenty) sent a bust of J. It. Smith to the exhibition of the Royal Academy, which, In the disposition of the works for exhibition, attracted the admiration of Nollekens, who' It is a splendid work ; let the man be known : remove one of my busts, and it this in its place." Nollekens himself did all that was in his power to make hint known ; but Chantrey, having once found the opportunity of making himself known, required thenceforth no other recommendation than his busts to ensure himself full employ ment in that department of art. In 1816 he was chosen an Associate, and in 1818 a Member, of the Royal Academy. In the following year (1319) he paid his first visit to Italy, where ha was elected a member of the aced/miles of Roma and Florence.
In the career of a uniformly successful artist there are few incidents to record : Chantrey 'a career for the last twenty ram of his life, as a monumental sculptor, warn unrivalled ; beyond this sphere however ho did not range. Ile wu knighted by the queen in 1837, at which period he was already a sufferer from discus of the heart, and from this time be finished few works blintelf: their completion was entrusted to his able &militant Ur. IVeckes. Of his poetic works, which are not many, few were exectitod from his own designs : the statue of Lady Louisa Russell, daughter of tho late Duke of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey, and the 'Sleeping Children; in the cathedral of Liohfield, his beet eepulehral monument, were both executed from the designs of Stothard : the first la • child on tiptoe, pressing a dove to her bosom ; the second la • monument to two children of the late W. Robinson, Esq.
There are also in Woburn Abbey two reliefs from Homer by Chantrey Partiog of Hector and Andromache; and ' Penelope with the bow of Ulysses; Lot they are calculated rather to detract from his repu tation, or, In other words, are evidence that poetic art was beyond his sphere. They are engraved in plates sale, and xxx. of the ' Outline Lograringe sad Descriptions of the Woburn Abbey Marbles.' As a monumental sculptor Chantrey will rank high : some of his statues in this branch of art are among the finest specimens of their class. One of his best works is the bronze statue of William Pitt, in Ilanoveroquare, London. There are also marble statues by him, in Weetminater Abbey, of Francis Horner, Sir T. S. Raffles, George Canning, Rev. E. F. Sutton, and Sir John Malcolm. Among his prin cipal works are also stature of Washington, in the state-house at Boston, United States; Spencer Percival, in All Saints' Church, North ampton; James Watt, in the church of Aston, near Birmingham; Sir Edward Hyde East and Bishop Heber, at Calcutta; Canning, in the town-hall of Liverpool; 3iountstewart Elphinstone and Sir Charles Forbes, at Bombay ; Dr. Ryder, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in Lichfield Cathedral ; and Dr. Bathurst, bishop of Norwich, in Norwich Cathedral. Hie busts are extremely numerous; his sitters were a largo proportion of the persons of rank and distinction of his time. lie executed also a few equestrian statues in bronze, but their postures are formal and want vigour; the horses are particularly inanimate in the body and limbs. His last work of this class, the Wellington testi monial, now placed before the Royal Exchange, London, was executed nearly entirely by Mr. Weekea.