Portrait bust of the Rt. Hon. George Canning M.P. (1770-1827)
after Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA (Norton, nr. Sheffield 1781 – London 1841)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1820 - 1830
Materials
Marble
Measurements
69 x 47 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 852212
Summary
Sculpture, marble; Portrait bust of the Rt. Hon. George Canning M.P. (1770-1827); after Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841); London. c. 1820-30. George Canning was one of the most brilliant politicians of the early nineteenth century, a magnificent orator and a witty satirist, whose barbs brought him admirers but also made him enemies. Unlike his aristocratic parliamentary colleagues, Canning lacked the wealth and connections. He was allbut unique in making a successful political career entirely through his own efforts, serving two long terms as Foreign Secretary and eventually becoming Prime Minister in 1827, only to die a few months later. The bust is one of a number of portrait busts at Ickworth depicting leading political figures who were contemporaries of Frederick William Hervey, 5th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bristol (1769-1859), who had served as an MP before entering the House of Lords. The bust was almost certainly made during the 1820s, when Lord Bristol was furnishing Ickworth. It is a copy of a bust by Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841), the first version of which was commissioned in 1818.
Full description
Portrait bust of the politician and wit George Canning (1770-1827), with the sitter’s head turned sharply to his right, the bust draped. Canning‘s expression is alert and he has distinctive triangular-shaped sideburns. The eyes are marked (the pupil and iris incised). Mounted on waisted turned marble socle. Shown on a porphyry scagliola column. George Canning was one of the most interesting figures in British life in the first decades of the nineteenth century. After a lifetime in politics, he was finally appointed Prime Minister of Great Britain and Ireland in April 1827, only to die suddenly five months later. Canning was unlike the great majority of British politicians at this time who came from aristocratic families, and whose careers were underpinned by both wealth and connections. The son of Irish parents, he remained proud of his ancestry and sympathetic to Catholic emancipation. Although he only visited Ireland once, George Canning liked to describe himself as ‘an Irishman born in London.’ HIckworth (NT 852241). Canning went on to Christ Church Oxford, where he was no less successful, with further new friends including Robert Banks Jenkinson, later the 2nd Earl of Liverpool and Canning’s political colleague for some four decades. George Canning became a lawyer but was determined from an early age to enter Parliament, despite the obstacles in his way. He became an adherent of William Pitt, whose Tory principles were to guide his own political journey. Canning was first elected to Parliament in 1793. In the course of his long political career, he served as Paymaster General, President of the Board of Control and, in particular, as Foreign Secretary, from 1807-09 and again from 1822-27. In 1809 Canning became frustrated at having to share responsibility for the overall direction of the war against France with the War Office, headed by Lord Castlereagh (for his portrait bust at Ickworth, NT 852242). When his manoeuvrings to have Castlereagh ejected from his position came to the latter’s ears he challenged George Canning to a duel. Canning had never fired a pistol in his life but agreed to the duel, which took place on Putney Heath on 21st September, and resulted in Canning’s being wounded, and subsequent recriminations against both men. George Canning was a close ally of the Earl of Liverpool over many years and succeeded him for a few months as Prime Minister, before his death, just five months after he had taken up the post. His untimely end evoked a strong response with an outpouring of sympathy among the public and in the press. There was great admiration for Canning's achievement in having made his way to the top of public life by his own exertions and with no inherited advantages. He was celebrated for the style of his oratory in and beyond Parliament, and also for his skills as a satirist and parodist, which won him both friends and enemies. His inclusion within the ‘pantheon’Ickworth reflects his prominence in public life in the first decades of the nineteenth century, but also the fact that he and Frederick William Hervey, later 5th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bristol, were contemporaries as young members of Parliament in the 1890s so would have known one another well. The bust has hitherto been attributed to the sculptor Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823), whose signed and dated portrait bust of Canning of 1810 is at Apsley House, London. But the Ickworth bust is in the opposite direction from Nollekens’ and is quite different in conception. It is in fact a copy after the later portrait of Canning made by Sir Frances Chantrey (1781-1841) in 1819, the prime versions of which are the versions in National Museum Wales (Inv. NMW A 507), dated 1819, the National Portrait Gallery, dated 1821 (NPG 282), and Chatsworth, dated 1826 (Yarrington, Lieberman, Potts and Barker 1991-1992, p. 106, no. 88b.). The initial order for a bust of Canning came from a Liverpool merchant named Bolton, a major constituency supporter of Canning, who was MP for Liverpool between 1812 and 1822. The drapery in this version differs significantly from that used for the prime versions in Cardiff and the NPG, as well as another version in the Parliamentary art collection, dated 1819. But in fact the drapery in these versions is quite different from that in Chantrey’s original plaster model in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Penny 1992, III, no. 688), whereas the Chatsworth bust (Dunkerley 1995, Pl. 24.6) does follow the drapery in the model. The drapery in the Ickworth bust is on the other hand quite close to that used in some other busts by Chantrey, such as the bust of Thomas Johnes of Hafod (1748-1816) of 1811 (National Museum of Wales; Yarrington, Lieberman, Potts and Barker 1991-1992, pp. 36-37, no. 20, figs. 18-20). It was by no means uncommon for copyists to changer minor elements such as the drapery. It is possible that the version at Ickworth was produced in Chantrey’s workshop, although on balance it is more likely to be a copy produced by another sculptor. The eyebrows are heavily worked in a way that would be highly unusual in a bust produced in Chantrey's workshop and the handling of the eyes is not especially good. It would seem entirely possible that Lord Bristol would have ordered the bust in 1827, in commemoration of the recently-deceased Canning. Jeremy Warren December 2025
Provenance
Part of the Bristol Collection. The house and contents were acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to the National Trust in 1956.
Makers and roles
after Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA (Norton, nr. Sheffield 1781 – London 1841), sculptor Joseph Nollekens, RA (London 1737 – London 1823), sculptor
References
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 Penny 1992: Nicholas Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 1540 to the Present Day, 3 vols., Oxford 1992 Dunkerley 1995: Samuel Dunkerley, Francis Chantrey Sculptor. From Norton to Knighthood, Sheffield 1995