• This book gives an introduction to one of the most remarkable collections of British sculpture in existence, and marks the first permanent display of the busts in the museum for over a century.• There is no other publication that covers Sir
Francis Chantrey and his work in such detail.This book uses the busts on the Chantrey Wall to give an introduction to the remarkable career of Francis Chantrey (1781-1841), and the collection in the Ashmolean Museum. The book will chart the progress of the busts from Chantrey’s workshop to a Victorian national treasure: the first monographic collection of British sculpture to become a part of a permanent museum collection. The book will follow the return of the busts from basement storage to their conservation and triumphant redisplay in the new building. The book will begin and end with the Chantrey Wall, one of the most photographed displays of recent years. The book will give non-specialist readers an introduction to one of the giants of British sculpture, and one of the most important sculpture collections in the country. Contents:
Introduction; Sir Francis Chantrey (1781–1841); Chantrey’s
Models: An ‘Assemblage of Precious Objects’;
Chantrey’s Plasters: Display and Reputation; The Changing Fortunes of the Chantrey Collection in the Ashmolean; Reading Chantrey in the Ashmolean
Museum; Sources and Further Reading; Acknowledgements