Howe,
Vincent and Nelson; and so rapidly did his reputation spread that the
next bust which he executed, that of Horne Tooke, procured him
commissions to the extent of L12,000. From this period he was almost
uninterruptedly engaged in professional labour. In 1819 he visited
Italy, and became acquainted with the most distinguished sculptors of
Florence and Rome. He was chosen an associate (1815) and afterwards a
member (1818) of the Royal Academy, received the degree of M.A. from
Cambridge, and that of D.C.L. from Oxford, and in 1835 was knighted. He
died after an illness of only two hours' duration on the 25th of
November 1841, having for some years suffered from disease of the heart,
and was buried in a tomb constructed by himself in the church of his
native village.

The works of Chantrey are extremely numerous. The principal are the
statues of Washington in the State-house at Boston, U.S.A.; of George
III. in the Guildhall, London; of George IV. at Brighton; of Pitt in
Hanover Square, London; of James Watt in Westminster Abbey and in
Glasgow; of Roscoe and Canning in Liverpool; of Dalton in Manchester; of
Lord President Blair and Lord Melville in Edinburgh, &c. Of his
equestrian statues the most famous are those of Sir Thomas Munro in
Calcutta, and the duke of Wellington in front of the London Exchange.
But the finest of Chantrey's works are his busts, and his delineations
of children. The figures of two children asleep in each other's arms,
which form a monumental design in Lichfield cathedral, have always been
lauded for beauty, simplicity and grace. So is also the statue of the
girlish Lady Louisa Russell, represented as standing on tiptoe and
fondling a dove in her bosom. Both these works appear, in design, to
have owed something to Stothard; for Chantrey knew his own scantiness of
ideal invention or composition, and on system sought aid from others for
such attempts. In busts, his leading excellence is facility--a ready
unconstrained air of life, a prompt vivacity of ordinary expression.
Allan Cunningham and Weekes were his chief assistants, and were indeed
the active executants of many works that pass under Chantrey's name.
Chantrey was a man of warm and genial temperament, and is said to have
borne noticeable though commonplace resemblance to the usual portraits
of Shakespeare.

_Chantrey Bequest._--By the will dated the 31st of December 1840,
Chantrey (who had no children) left his whole residuary personal