Sir Francis Chantrey and the Ashmolean Museum
This book uses the busts on the Chantrey Wall in the Ashmolean Museum to give an introduction to the remarkable career of Francis Chantrey (1781-1841), and the collection in the Ashmolean. The book charts the progress of the busts from Chantrey's workshop to a Victorian national treasure: the first monographic collection of British sculpture to become a part of a permanent museum collection. It follows the return of the busts from basement storage to their conservation and triumphant redisplay in the new building.
The book begins and ends with the Chantrey Wall, one of the most photographed displays of recent years providing non-specialist readers an introduction to one of the giants of British sculpture, and one of the most important sculpture collections in the country.
Dr MG Sullivan was Chantrey Fellow at the Ashmolean from 2006-9, Shuffrey Fellow at Lincoln College, Oxford 2006-9, and Bryan Montgomery Visiting Fellow in Sculpture at Lincoln College in 2010. He curated the Chantrey Wall, and conducted the three-year research project on the Chantrey collection. He holds a PhD from the University of Leeds, and is currently a Research Fellow in the Research Department of the V&A.