About this 3D model

John Nicholson travelled to London in 1827 and visited the studio of leading portrait sculptor Francis Chantrey. One of Chantrey’s assistants made a plaster bust of Nicholson, which remained with his family. The bust was given to Tony Harrison during the first run of his play Poetry or Bust in 1993. For Harrison, the bust was a warning against the corrupting influence of commerce on creative practice. Reflecting on his literary heroes he wrote: “Nicholson swapped his integrity for a bust, that meant fame, acceptance, compromise. An old Yorkshire woman who saw the play at the Mill said she had the original bust of Nicholson, a plaster one, and that I could have it. She said, “It's about as much use to me as a chocolate fireguard.” Nicholson’s visit to London was enabled by a grant from the Royal Literary Fund, secured for him by the academic and philanthropist George Birkbeck. The trip began well but ended in disgrace. He was arrested for arguing with a bust of William Shakespeare at the Drury Lane Theatre, while drunk. Released without charge, he travelled back to West Yorkshire without the fame he had sought. In Harrison’s play, the fictionalised sculptor Chantrey bonds with Nicholson over their shared Yorkshire heritage. Later, however, he instructs an unnamed workman to simply remodel an existing bust of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Chantrey reminds his assistant to charge Nicholson the full five guineas for the work. The name of the person who made the bust has not been recorded, but it is known that James Heffernan, Frederick Smith and Henry Weekes worked as assistants at Chantrey’s Pimlico studio during this period.