Shelley, Keats and Byron

[poliphilo]

The other great early 19th century writer of whom there are no decent portraits is Shelley. (I mean Percy not Mary). This is odd, given that Shelley was a wealthy  aristo and very much in love with himself. The one authentic adult portrait- by Amelia Curran- is horribly bland and- though Mary begged it off the artist- generally regarded as a poor likeness.

Here it is, anyway.



And here's Mary in her early 40s.



There are several rather good portraits of Keats- including a life mask and a death mask- but then Keats- though only a middle-class vulgarian- had friends who were artists.

Here's one I hadn't seen before- a charming silhouette by Marianne Hunt. 



There are, of course, lots and lots of portraits of Byron. Most of them serve the legend. Here's one (by Count d'Orsay) that subverts it, showing him as nervy, querulous and (unmistakeably) balding. 

Comments

[jenny_evergreen]

Ah, but d'Orsay had a problem drawing feet! If Byron's feet were that tiny, he'd've fallen over. :P

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's true.

I don't suppose it's a brilliant likeness, but it does seem to capture something that other artists missed.

[jenny_evergreen]

I'm sure it does; the feet just struck me as funny. :)

[oakmouse]

Byron had at least one clubfoot, though.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But did he?

There's a discussion of the evidence here http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/issue_pdf/frontmatter_pdf/CXLVI/apr19.pdf

[oakmouse]

Oh, fascinating! I was unaware of this, but I think it's a well-argued case. I knew a man who developed an equivalent of Little's Disease in adulthood after a head injury from a motorcycle accident. The style of movement described as Byron's gait is in fact nearly identical. The funny thing is that my former acquaintance also appeared to have very small feet due to the peculiar way he stood.

*Retires to corner with mental bone to gnaw.*