English sculptor, who became the most well-known and fashionable practitioner in his field in the Regency era. Chantrey was the son of a small farmer from Derbyshire and started his career as a portrait painter, concentrating on sculpture from 1807 onwards. In 1809 he married a wealthy cousin, Mary Ann Wale (1787–1875), enabling him to move into a house and studio in Pimlico. From 1811–1812 onwards he was immensely successful and by 1822 could charge 200 guineas for a bust. Southey greatly admired Chantrey’s Sleeping Children, which he saw at the Royal Academy in 1817, and Chantrey sent Southey a copy of his bust of Wordsworth in 1822. Another connection between the two men was Allan Cunningham, who was Chantrey’s Clerk of Works and had written to Southey for advice on his poetry in 1819, the two men later becoming friends. Chantrey asked Southey to sit for him as early as 1823 and Southey did so in 1828, when John Murray, his publisher, commissioned Chantrey to produce a bust of Southey. However, both Chantrey and Southey were dissatisfied with the outcome. The bust remained at Chantrey’s studio, though it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837. It was bought by the National Portrait Gallery in 1955.