Sir Francis Chantrey, recollections1849 |
Common terms and phrases
ability admiration agreeable amusement APPENDIX artist attention beautiful BELGRAVE PLACE bust C. H. TURNER Canova Chantrey's character chiaroscuro colour commission composition considered DEAR JONES DEAR SIR dine Domenichino drapery Duke of Wellington effect Elgin Marbles esteem estimation evinced examples executed expression feeling felt figures FRANCIS CHANTREY gave GEORGE JONES George the Fourth Ghiberti give graceful hand head Holkham honour Horne Tooke horse imitation improved induced intercourse jocose judgment Lady Chantrey LETTER FROM THOMSON look Lord Egremont Lord Leicester Loscombe ment merits Michael Angelo mind monument nature never o'clock object observation opinion painter painting perfect picture pleasure portrait produced profession pursuit Quirinal Palace Raphael received remark respect Rome Royal Academy sculptor simplicity sincerely SIR CHARLES CLARKE Sir Francis Sir Thomas statue Stothard style success talent taste tell thing Thomas Munro thought told Truly truth whilst Wilkie wished
Popular passages
Page 254 - 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 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...
Page 254 - ... 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 sittings, and never come alone, nor bring more than three friends at once, and that they should all be 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.
Page 255 - Walter 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 Abbotsford, 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 1820 by Francis Chantrey, and presented...
Page 255 - I had to do with plaster casts. The Bust was pirated by Italians ; and England and Scotland, and even the Colonies, were supplied with unpermitted and bad casts to the extent of thousands — in spite of the terror of an act of Parliament.
Page 301 - 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...
Page 255 - In the months of May and June in the same year, 1828, Sir Walter fulfilled his promise ; and 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.
Page 132 - 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.
Page 277 - 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 humbleness of his own origin. The feeling that he took from it was one of pride, and not of shame.
Page 255 - Scotland, and even the Colonies, were supplied with unpermitted and bad casts to 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 1827, and it is the only duplicate of my Bust of Sir Walter that I ever executed in marble.
Page 134 - ... Academy, he was very fond of joking with Turner and Constable, carrying his jokes even to an extent which might have ruffled the temper of some men. Mr. Jones relates many instances of his liberality, one of which is in reference to the monument of Northcote : " On the sculptor being asked, what it 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 too little for a statue ; but I love to be treated with confidence,...