Sir Francis Chantrey (1781–1841), RA

Sir Francis Chantrey, the preeminent English sculptor of his era, sits for this portrait around 1810 by Martin Archer Shee, now at the Royal Scottish Academy. Shee, born in Dublin in 1769 and trained at the Dublin Society before moving to London, built a formidable practice as a portrait painter to the British establishment. He became President of the Royal Academy in 1830, succeeding Thomas Lawrence, and held the post until his death in 1850. Chantrey, whose portrait busts of Wellington, George IV, and Walter Scott made him wealthy and famous, was one of Shee"s most distinguished sitters.

Shee presents Chantrey in the standard half-length portrait format favored for Royal Academy members, with dark neutral background concentrating attention on the face. The flesh tones are built up in warm glazes over a cooler underpainting, following the Reynolds-Lawrence tradition of British academic portraiture. The handling of the sitter"s clothing shows competent brushwork with broad, confident passages in the dark coat contrasting with more detailed treatment of the white cravat and face.