Portrait bust of William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806)
workshop of Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA (Norton, nr. Sheffield 1781 – London 1841)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1810 - 1820
Materials
Plaster
Measurements
790 mm (H)480 mm (W)260 mm (D)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1257612
Summary
Sculpture, plaster; portrait bust of William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806); workshop of Sir Frances Legatt Chantrey (1781-1841); c. 1810-11. A portrait bust of William Pitt the Younger, the statesman who became, Britain’s youngest ever Prime Minister in 1783, at the age of just 24. A great public speaker and a highly able administrator, Pitt led the nation through the turbulent times of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, whilst he also engineered the Act of Union between Britain and Ireland in 1801.
Full description
A plaster portrait bust of William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806), made in the workshop of Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841), probably in around 1810-20. The sitter is depicted with his head turned slightly to his right, his long sharp nose prominent, dressed in a loose toga-like drape. On a turned plaster socle. Displayed on a wooden pedestal. William Pitt the Younger was one of the greatest Prime Ministers in the history of Great Britain and Ireland, taking up office in December 1783 at the age of just 24. This makes him still today the youngest ever person to occupy the office. He was also one of the longest-serving leaders, remaining in post during two separate terms, for a total of nearly nineteen years. Pitt was in office as Prime Minister during some of the most dangerous and turbulent times in the country’s history, notably the latter years of the wars of American independence, the French revolution from 1789, the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and the outbreak of war in Europe. Pitt was a brilliant orator and also a superb administrator, who brought about numerous reforms to public administration, modernising the country in many ways. He was a severe man, dedicated to his work, unmarried and with few friends. His persona meant that William Pitt was generally much less popular with the public than his efforts on its behalf might have merited. Nevertheless, following his early death, caused through exhaustion and drink, painters and sculptors competed to meet the demand for images of this great man. By far the most successful sculpted portrait was the one produced by Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823), based on Pitt’s death mask and first produced in 1806-07. Over the remainder of his lifetime, Nollekens and his assistants made some 75 versions in marble, whilst around 600 plaster casts were also produced by his workshop. There are at least eight versions of Nollekens’ portrait in National Trust collections, including a signed marble version at Ickworth (NT 852227). The bust at Kingston Lacy has until now been assumed to be yet another version of Nollekens' famous image, which certainly influenced many subsequent portraits of William Pitt. One of these was the portrait bust made by Francis Chantrey which, when compared with Nollekens’ incisive portrayal, seems slightly more idealising. The bust at Kingston Lacy is a plaster version of this model, almnost certainly made in Chantrey's large workshop in London. Now recognised as one of the greatest of English sculptors, Francis Chantrey was certainly the finest portrait sculptor working in Britain in the nineteenth century. Born in modest circumstances near Sheffield, he was largely self-taught and, unlike many other young artists, did not have the opportunity as a young man to study in Italy, although he would travel there in 1819. Chantrey began his career as a woodcarver in Sheffield, but was living in London by 1809, when he married. His first major success came with his portrait bust of the Rev. J. Horne Tooke, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1811 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge). Whilst in the course of his career Chantrey made numerous church and public monuments in marble and in bronze, it was as a maker of portrait busts that he was especially admired by his contemporaries. He had a particular ability to express the softness of flesh through the hard material of marble, whilst retaining a sense of the bone structures beneath. His contemporary J.T. Smith praised his busts for ‘their astonishing strength of natural character, for the fleshy manner in which he has treated them, which every real artist knows to be the most difficult part of the Sculptor’s task.’ (Nollekens and his Times, I, p. 227). Likewise Chantrey’s friend George Jones wrote that ‘His busts were dignified by his knowledge and admiration of the antique, and the fleshy, pulpy appearance he gave to marble seems almost miraculous when operating on such a material; the heads of his busts were raised with dignity, the throats large and well turned, the shoulders ample, or made to appear so; likeness was preserved and natural defect obviated.’ (Jones 1849, p. 172). Chantrey's portrait bust of William Pitt was of course a posthumous work, dependent also on Nollekens' prototype. It was among Francis Chantrey’s earlier works. The first version, in marble, was commissioned by the Masters of Trinity House in 1810 (Yarrington, Lieberman, Potts and Barker 1991-1992, pp. 22-23, no. 4) and was exhibited that same year at the Royal Academy. It was destroyed in the Blitz, in December 1940. Chantrey’s original plaster model survives however in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Penny 1992, no. 748). Another later marble version of the portrait bust, dated 1833, is in the Library of Pembroke College, Pitt’s former college at Cambridge University, whilst it also served as a model for the portrait in the full-length standing figure of William Pitt in bronze made in 1831, versions of which are in Hanover Square, London and George Street, Edinburgh. Several plaster replicas of the portrait bust are recorded as having been produced in 1811, whilst today there is another plaster version at Cirencester Park. The bust does not appear to be listed in the 1860 inventory of the contents of Kingston Lacy, unless it is the ‘Plaster Bust’ recorded in the State Dining Room. Jeremy Warren November 2023
Provenance
Ralph Bankes (1902-1981); bequeathed in 1981.
Makers and roles
workshop of Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA (Norton, nr. Sheffield 1781 – London 1841), sculptor after Joseph Nollekens, RA (London 1737 – London 1823), sculptor
References
Jones 1849: George Jones, Sir Francis Chantrey, RA: Recollections of his Life, Practice and Opinions, London 1849 Smith, John Thomas, 1766-1833 Nollekens and his times : MCMXX [1920] Penny 1992: Nicholas Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 1540 to the Present Day, 3 vols., Oxford 1992, no. 748. Yarrington, Lieberman, Potts and Barker 1991-1992: Alison Yarrington, Ilene D. Lieberman, Alex Potts and Malcolm Barker, ‘An Edition of the Ledger of Sir Francis Chantrey R.A., at the Royal Academy, 1809-1841, The Volume of the Walpole Society, 1991-1992, no. 4. Roscoe 2009: I. Roscoe, E. Hardy and M. G. Sullivan, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851, New Haven and Yale 2009, p. 245, no. 331.