The monument to Charlotte Botfield, who died in 1825, consists of a life-size standing figure set within a shallow architectural recess. The sculpture is the work of William Behnes ⓘ and represents Charlotte Botfield’s son, rather than the deceased herself1 — a deliberate and affecting departure from conventional commemorative portraiture.

The youthful figure is shown leaning forward in a posture of quiet grief, head bowed and body inclined toward the enclosing architectural frame. Draped in classical garments, he rests against the stone setting with a restrained, inward gesture that conveys mourning through pose and attitude rather than overt symbolism. The modelling is sensitive and economical, with the fall of the drapery used to articulate the body’s weight and emotional gravity.

By depicting the living mourner instead of the deceased, the monument shifts emphasis from commemoration to bereavement. The sculpture becomes an image of filial loss rather than memorial likeness, aligning with early nineteenth-century neoclassical ideals in which emotional expression is conveyed through controlled form and classical restraint.

The architectural framing reinforces the figure’s introspective isolation, enclosing the body within a sober and ordered structure that heightens the sense of private grief. The monument exemplifies Behnes’s ability to combine academic training with psychological subtlety, and stands as a particularly thoughtful example of early nineteenth-century funerary sculpture.

• 1.
  
  Pevsner, Nikolaus Northamptonshire Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings Of England Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings Of England New Haven and London Yale University Press 1973.

  p360.