The Sleeping Children
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| The Sleeping Children | |
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| Artist | Francis Chantrey |
| Year | 1816 |
| Type | Marble sculpture |
| Location | Lichfield Cathedral, Lichfield |
| Owner | The Dean and Chapter |
The Sleeping Children is a marble sculpture by Francis Chantrey.[1] The statue depicts Ellen-Jane and Marianne Robinson asleep in each other's arms on a bed. The statue was commissioned by the mother of the two children, also named Ellen-Jane Robinson, whose daughters had died in 1813 and 1814.[2]
The statue was placed in the south east corner of Lichfield Cathedral in 1817 where it remains. The work is considered to be one of Chantrey's finest works and one of the greatest works of English sculpture during the period.
The sculpture depicts the two daughters of Ellen-Jane Robinson (née Woodhouse) lying asleep on a bed in each other's arms. The tragic story depicted by the sculpture begins in 1812, when Ellen-Jane's husband, the clergyman Reverend William Robinson, who had recently become a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral, contracted tuberculosis and died. Reverend Robinson was in his thirties at the time of his death and left his wife with their two daughters.[2]
In 1813, Ellen-Jane and her daughter, also named Ellen-Jane, were on a trip in Bath. During the trip, the daughter's nightdress caught fire while she was preparing for bed and she died of the burns she received. The following year, the younger daughter, Marianne, sickened and died while they were in London.[2] Within three years, Ellen-Jane had lost her entire family and in her distress, she commissioned Francis Chantrey to secure a likeness of her lost children.[2]
During a meeting with Chantrey, Ellen-Jane expressed to him a clear idea of what she wanted. She told Chantrey of how in the past she had watched as her daughters fell asleep in each other's arms and this is how she wanted them represented.[2] She had also taken inspiration from Thomas Banks’ Boothby monument (1791) in St Oswald's Church, Ashbourne. The statue depicts Penelope Boothby,[3] the daughter of Sir Brooke Boothby, 6th Baronet, who had died during childhood. Chantrey visited this monument and then returned to his home to make a model of his proposed sculpture.[2]