Robert Southey
1 portrait
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- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Robert Southey
by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey
marble bust, 1832
30 3/8 in. x 19 5/8 in. (770 mm x 500 mm) overall
Purchased, 1955
Primary Collection
NPG 3956
Artistback to top
- Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841), Sculptor. Artist or producer associated with 267 portraits, Sitter in 11 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This bust of the poet and historian Robert Southey was commissioned by his publisher, John Murray, but not accepted. Southey refused to give further sittings, writing caustically that as Chantrey was 'perfectly acquainted with the outside of my head, I have desired Murray to send him a book which will show him the inside of it'.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Smartify image discovery app
- Piper, David, The English Face, 1992, p. 187
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 577
- Walker, Richard, Regency Portraits, 1985, p. 471
Events of 1832back to top
Current affairs
William IV agrees to the creation of new peers in order to obtain the passage of the Reform Act, although this proved unnecessary when the Tories withdrew opposition. Male franchise is extended by fifty percent; fifty-six 'rotten boroughs' lose representation and forty-one new constituencies are created. Irish and Scottish Reform Acts are also passed.Art and science
Mathematician Charles Babbage publishes his best selling Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. In response to recent outbreaks of machine-breaking and riots, he aimed to reveal the sources of Britain's industrial strength to the urban elite and promote institutional change.Parliament votes funds for National Gallery buildings in Trafalgar Square.
International
Free land grants end for English settlers in Australia on recommendation of the leading colonisation theorist Edward Wakefield in his Letter from Sydney.Greek independence recognised by the Treaty of London.
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