SIR CHARLES MANFIELD CLARKE BT.

Details

SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY R.A. (1781-1842), LONDON, 1840
SIR CHARLES MANFIELD CLARKE BT.
Marble bust; inscribed to the reverse 'SIR. C. M. CLARKE. BART./ A MARK OF ESTEEM/ FROM SIR F. CHANTREY/ SCULPTOR 1840.'; on a circular marble socle
28 ½ in. (72.5 cm.) high, overall

Provenance

Sotheby's, London, 12 Dec. 1985, lot 320, where acquired by the present owner.

Literature

A. Yarrington et al., 'Chantrey Ledgers', The fifty-sixth volume of the Walpole Society 1991/1992, London, 1994, pp. 292-3.
I. Roscoe, ed., A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851, Yale, 2009, p. 253.

Exhibited

Royal Academy, London, 1840, no. 1199.

Special notice

This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Christie’s Park Royal. All collections from Christie’s Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.

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Lot Essay

The present bust was ordered in October 1833 but only delivered to Sir Charles Clarke in 1840. In the intervening period, the sitter, a leading practitioner in midwifery and physician to Queen Adelaide, and the sculptor became close friends. Chantrey finished the clay model of the bust in the summer of 1833 but Clarke was unable to pay the 200 guineas Chantrey normally charged to complete the work in marble; Clarke only received the marble once Chantrey decided to make a presentation of it as a 'mark of esteem' to a friend and doctor, to whom he was by then indebted for medical advice. The plaster model is in the Ashmolean Museum.

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