Queen Victoria

1 portrait

Queen Victoria, by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey, 1841, based on a work of 1839 -NPG 1716 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Queen Victoria

replica by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey
1841, based on a work of 1839
28 in. x 19 1/4 in. (710 mm x 490 mm) overall
NPG 1716

Inscriptionback to top

Incised on the front of the sock: THE QUEEN and on the back: SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY,/SCULPTOR,/1841.

This portraitback to top

This is a replica of the marble bust by Chantrey of 1839 in the Royal Collection, the latter exhibited RA, 1840 (1070), engraved anonymously, published 1849 (example in NPG), for the Art Union. There are slight differences in the tiara, but the two busts are otherwise identical. For Chantrey's original pencil studies see NPG 316a (125 and 126). According to the 1913 sale catalogue, the NPG bust was given to Peel after the Queen's visit to Drayton Manor in 1846. Chantrey's original plaster model is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and casts were owned by J. H. Cowland and Sir Thomas Brock. A reduced ivory copy by B. Cheverton of 1842 is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, reproduced in their booklet Kings and Queens (1937), p 45. A bronze copy by T. Thornycroft was issued by the Art Union in 1848, one example reproduced Country Life, CXLV (1969), 1494.

Provenanceback to top

Presented by the sitter to Sir Robert Peel, 1846; offered for sale by the Peel Trustees, Robinson, Fisher & Co, 19 November 1913 (lot 94), bought in; purchased immediately after the sale from the Peel Trustees, with the aid of a contribution from G. Harland Peck, 1913.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey

View all known portraits for Queen Victoria