Sleeping children

Summary.  After Ellen Robinson lost two daughters, 1814-5, she commissioned Francis Chantrey to sculpt a monument known as the ‘Sleeping Children’. The monument was exhibited, 1817, in the Royal Academy to high acclaim. It is in the southeast aisle and is a focus for prayer and meditation for lost children.

     In April 1801, Ellen Jane Woodhouse, daughter of the Dean, married William Robinson. William died of tuberculosis (consumption) in March 1812. In 1813, she moved to Walcote, Bath, with her two daughters. In March 1814, Marianne, the youngest aged seven, died from burns sustained when her nightdress caught fire after standing too close to an open hearth. The older daughter, also called Ellen Jane, was suffering from tuberculosis and she died in 1815, aged thirteen.[1] Many stories have been woven around this tragedy, but the basic facts say much about life and death at this time.[2] Over four years the mother had lost her family. Ellen Jane then commissioned Francis Chantrey to sculpt a monument in memory of her two daughters.[3]

 

Francis Chantrey’s monument to Ellen Jane and Marianne. It has been thought it was based on Thomas Banks sculpture of Penelope Boothby, aged 5, in Ashbourne Church.

 In 1817, the monument was exhibited in the Royal Academy to high acclaim.[4] In 1818, it was located in Lichfield Cathedral and has become a focus for prayer and meditation on lost children.[5] Ellen Jane married twice more, lived until aged 87 (1870) and is buried in Christchurch, Lichfield, cemetery. This was adjacent to her house at Beacon Place, later Beacon Park.[6] She left a legacy for the church and the school at Christchurch.

 

Francis Chantrey,[7] 1781–1841, was aged 35 when approached to sculpt the monument. Chantrey drew the design, but it is unclear how much sculpturing he did and how much his team did, headed by Francis Legé. The cost was £650. Using Carrara marble from north Italy showed its importance to Chantrey since this work confirmed him as a top English sculptor. Marianne holding snowdrops, the delicate folds of the girl’s nightdresses, the hollowed bed they were lying on and their finely lined faces with curled hair show both sensitivity and realism. It moved away from the Neoclassical style of posed ideal beauty prevalent at this time to a Naturalism in which sculpture portrayed both a realism and sensitivity.[8]

 Sir Francis Chantrey, 1831, (Wikipedia, cropped. Public Domain). Remarkably he was blind in his right eye.

          Chantrey also sculpted Bishop Henry Ryder, Bishop of Lichfield 1824–1836, displayed in the north transept. It was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1841, a few months before he died. The bishop was said to have evangelical fervour and awesome energy.[9]

 

Henry Ryder, the kneeling bishop. (Wikipedia, cropped. Public Domain.)

 

            It was said the Sleeping Children was perfect, but there is a lump under Ellen Janes’s foot which is unfinished.[10]  Similarly, a boot of Henry Ryder is missing a heel. These deliberate imperfections have been interpreted as the artist’s way of showing perfection comes only from God.

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[1] There are conflicting accounts of the tragic story of the two daughters, but this is taken from G. Frost, The Sleeping Children 1816–2016, Unpub. article in the Cathedral Library (2016) and refers to death certificates. See also cathedral booklet P. Scaife, H. Scaife and R. Prentis, The carvings of Lichfield Cathedral. (2010).

[2] It is said the mother moved to Bath to allow the cleaner air of the town to help her ailing oldest daughter to breath. It is said Marianne went into the garden to pick snowdrops for her suffering sister, got cold and then stood too close to a fire.

[3] The monument has the words ‘remembrance of heaven loved innocence’.

[4] Reports state mothers and children were weeping at the monument, which had to be barriered. Small replicas were made and sold.

[5] There is a notion this location in the south aisle was always where the altar to St Nicholas stood in the medieval cathedral, but this is probably fanciful.

[6] An estate of 100 acres area. From Anon, Chantrey’s Sleeping Children, Unpub. article in cathedral library, undated.

[7] S, Dunkerley, Francis Chantrey, Sculptor. From Norton to Knighthood. (Sheffield: 1995).

[8] This explains why it looks like the children are sleeping, though folded hemp sacking under the pillow indicates it is also concerning grief.

[9] R. Prentis, Chantrey’s kneeling bishops. Unpub. article in cathedral library (2005).

[10] A lump left under the toes of Ellen Jane are said to show Chantrey thought only perfection was shown by God, but most likely this was technically required to strengthen the toes.

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