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Bust of Sir John Soane
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Bust of Sir John Soane. SM M931. ©Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Photo: Lewis Bush
Sir Francis Chantrey RA (1781 - 1841), sculptor
Bust of Sir John Soane
Marble
Height: 76.2cm
Width: 50.8cm
Width: 50.8cm
Inscription: JOHN SOANE ESQ R.A. / PRESENTED AS A TOKEN OF RESPECT BY / FRANCIS CHANTREY SCULPTOR / 1830 [on verso]
Museum number: M931
On display: Dome Area
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
Sir John Soane presides over the Dome Area, the scene he created, in the form of this marble bust by his friend the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey (1782-1841).
He began sitting for it in 1827, when Chantry asked him to come for a sitting and “to bring your head with you”. It was finished in 1829 and Chantrey maintained, in a letter to Soane that, “as a work of art I have never produced a better”, adding that he was not sure whether it was more like John Soane or Julius Caesar!
The preparatory pencil sketches made by Chantrey are in the National Portrait Gallery and the plaster model in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
He began sitting for it in 1827, when Chantry asked him to come for a sitting and “to bring your head with you”. It was finished in 1829 and Chantrey maintained, in a letter to Soane that, “as a work of art I have never produced a better”, adding that he was not sure whether it was more like John Soane or Julius Caesar!
The preparatory pencil sketches made by Chantrey are in the National Portrait Gallery and the plaster model in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Literature
Sir John Soane, Description, 1835, p.43
Associated items
p11, same subject
P142, same subject
P242, associated project
SC32, same artist
X226, creator's portrait
P142, same subject
P242, associated project
SC32, same artist
X226, creator's portrait
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk