Sir Walter Scott
A marble bust of Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and advocate Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), carved in the style of Greek / Roman antiquity, shoulders swathed in classical drapery. The sitter is portrayed in middle age with short cropped hair, face turned in three-quarters profile to the right with a thoughtful expression. It is signed and dated: 'Sir Francis Chantrey / Sculptor / 1841'.
Author of the narrative poem The Lady of the Lake (1810) and novels Waverley (1814), Roby Roy (1817), The Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818) and The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), Scott was famous for inventing historical fiction. A collector and antiquarian, he was a member of the Highland Society and Royal Celtic Society, President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820-32) and Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1827-29). He was responsible for stage-managing King George IV's spectacular visit to Scotland in 1822 for which he famously dressed the king in tartan. He was an immensely important figure in understanding Victorians' fascination with the Highlands and Scottish culture. It was largely due to him that Scotland was no longer viewed as primitive and barbaric but a place of noble heroes, sublime drama and romance.
Scott posed for many famous artists of his day including Henry Raeburn, David Wilkie, Andrew Geddes, Thomas Lawrence, William Allan, Bertel Thorvaldsen and Edwin Landseer. Painted portraits of him were reproduced in prints to meet the demand of his growing celebrity status, especially after his death in 1832. Similarly many copies were made of his portraits in sculpture. It is thought that this sculpture is a studio copy.
Chantrey recorded that the only man he ever asked for a sitting was Sir Walter Scott. The original bust, modelled in plaster and carved in marble in 1820, can be seen in Abbotsford, the house Scott built and lived in near Melrose, in the Scottish Borders, which is now a museum. Scott's friend John Morritt of Rokeby Park wrote: 'in my opinion, Chantrey alone has in his bust attained that, in his case, most difficult take of portraying the features faithfully, and yet giving the real and transient expression of the countenance when animated.' Dressed in classical robes, the bust also gave him an heroic status. Scott had criticised Raeburn's first portrait of him as being too prosaic. This bust was copied by Chantrey only once (the copy is now at Stratfield Saye). The sculptor modelled another bust from life in 1828 for Sir Robert Peel. These busts were copied many times by others. Archibald McLellan (who bequeathed this bust to Glasgow Museums in 1854) ordered a bust of Scott from Chantrey in 1836 (recorded in the latter's ledger), but the order appears not to have been completed during the sculptor's lifetime. It is almost certain that this piece is the work of Chantrey's assistants, finished after his death.
Credit: Archibald McLellan Collection, purchased, 1856