SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY R.A. (1781-1842), LONDON, 1840

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.