3 OF 11

Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey

3 of 11 portraits of Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey

by Thomas Phillips
oil on panel, 1818
36 in. x 30 3/8 in. (914 mm x 772 mm)
Given by the sitter's widow, 1859
Primary Collection
NPG 86

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Sitterback to top

Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841), Sculptor. Sitter in 11 portraits, Artist associated with 266 portraits.

Artistback to top

Thomas Phillips (1770-1845), Portrait painter. Artist associated with 215 portraits, Sitter in 4 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Though destined to become one of the most famous sculptors of his age, Chantrey began life as a painter. This portrait by Phillips was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818 and shows Chantrey at the age of thirty-seven. He is holding a modelling tool in his left hand and rests his arm on a marble head. The statuette in the background is of Lady Louisa Russell. In his memoirs the artist Charles Robert Leslie remembered Chantrey as 'handsome (his mouth exceedingly beautiful) with a bluff John Bull look'.