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Sleeping child, a model for or a cast of a marble original once in the Library at Killerton in Devon
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Sir Francis Chantrey RA (1781 - 1841), sculptor
Sleeping child, a model for or a cast of a marble original once in the Library at Killerton in Devon
Plaster, modelled or cast
Museum number: SC32
On display: Tivoli Recess (pre-booked tours only)
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
This sculpture depicts an infant asleep on a mattress upon which is a large tasselled cushion. The child is clad in a nightdress, the chest and left shoulder being bare. The head is inclined to the right and a flower clutched in the right hand. A butterfly has settled on a blossom in the crook of the right arm.
The original marble was executed for Thomas Dyke Acland (1787-1781) a politician and philanthropist and depicts his daughter Harriet who died aged one in 1818. The marble remained at the Acland family seat of Killerton, Broadclyst, Devon until it was sold in December 1943. It is now in a private collection in the USA. Chantrey’s Ledger records the order for the 'Sleeping Child' in 1818 and that the marble was completed in 1820 and cost £367.10. It was exbibited at the Royal Academy in 1820, No.1062.
Felicia Hermans’s poem “The Child’s Last Sleep” is believed to have been inspired by this sculpture and a fine drawing of it by Henry Corbould, engraved by W.T. Fry was published with the poem in Friendship's Offering, 1826.
Three years previously Chantry had shown the famous “Sleeping Children” designed for a monument to the Robinson children in Litchfield Cathedral, a work which greatly increased his reputation. A third work of this type was a “Reposing Infant”, executed for Mr Boswell of Auchinleck.
In 1830 this model was on display in the Museum Corridor, built in 1824-25, next to the Picture Room at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, a space dominated by large architectural casts from Roman and Greek temples. By 1834-35 it had been moved to its final position, in the newly created Tivoli Recess off the staircase and its place in the Museum Corridor had been taken by a similar sculptural subject, Thomas Banks' model of Penelope Boothby.
In 2012 this sculpture was reinstated in the position it occupied at the time of Soane's death in 1837, in the recreated Tivoli Recess as part of Phase 2 of Opening up the Soane.
The original marble was executed for Thomas Dyke Acland (1787-1781) a politician and philanthropist and depicts his daughter Harriet who died aged one in 1818. The marble remained at the Acland family seat of Killerton, Broadclyst, Devon until it was sold in December 1943. It is now in a private collection in the USA. Chantrey’s Ledger records the order for the 'Sleeping Child' in 1818 and that the marble was completed in 1820 and cost £367.10. It was exbibited at the Royal Academy in 1820, No.1062.
Felicia Hermans’s poem “The Child’s Last Sleep” is believed to have been inspired by this sculpture and a fine drawing of it by Henry Corbould, engraved by W.T. Fry was published with the poem in Friendship's Offering, 1826.
Three years previously Chantry had shown the famous “Sleeping Children” designed for a monument to the Robinson children in Litchfield Cathedral, a work which greatly increased his reputation. A third work of this type was a “Reposing Infant”, executed for Mr Boswell of Auchinleck.
In 1830 this model was on display in the Museum Corridor, built in 1824-25, next to the Picture Room at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, a space dominated by large architectural casts from Roman and Greek temples. By 1834-35 it had been moved to its final position, in the newly created Tivoli Recess off the staircase and its place in the Museum Corridor had been taken by a similar sculptural subject, Thomas Banks' model of Penelope Boothby.
In 2012 this sculpture was reinstated in the position it occupied at the time of Soane's death in 1837, in the recreated Tivoli Recess as part of Phase 2 of Opening up the Soane.
Literature
Sir John Soane, Description, 1830/32 eds, p.13
J. Holland, Memorials of Sir F Chantrey, 1851, p.270
Alison Yarrington, Ilene D. Lieberman, Alex Potts and Malcolm Baker, The Volume of the Walpole Society Vol. 56, An Edition of the Ledger of Sir Francis Chantrey R.A., at the Royal Academy, 1809-1841 (1991/1992), pp.105-06, no.88a
J. Holland, Memorials of Sir F Chantrey, 1851, p.270
Alison Yarrington, Ilene D. Lieberman, Alex Potts and Malcolm Baker, The Volume of the Walpole Society Vol. 56, An Edition of the Ledger of Sir Francis Chantrey R.A., at the Royal Academy, 1809-1841 (1991/1992), pp.105-06, no.88a
Associated items
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