The sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey (1781 - 1841) bequeathed a fortune, and asked that the income on the money be used to buy paintings and sculpture made in Britain with a view to encouraging the establishment of a 'public national collection of British fine art'. The fund is administered by the Royal Academy, and the first work was bought for the collection in 1877, after the death of Lady Chantrey. After the founding of the Tate Gallery in 1897 the Bequest was allocated to support Tate acquisitions. Until the 1920s this was the main purchase grant for the Tate Gallery.