Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

by Richard Rothwell
oil on canvas, exhibited 1840
29 in. x 24 in. (737 mm x 610 mm)
Bequeathed by the sitter's daughter-in-law, Jane, Lady Shelley, 1899
Primary Collection
NPG 1235

Sitter

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), Novelist; wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Sitter associated with 3 portraits.

Artist

Richard Rothwell (1800-1868), Painter. Artist associated with 10 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.

This Portrait

Mary Shelley, the daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, eloped with Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1814 and became his second wife in 1816. Her Frankenstein of 1818, written at Lord Byron's suggestion, is one of the finest examples of the Gothic novel in English. The papier-mâché frame to this portrait is by C.F. Bielefeld and was made by applying seven different types of ornament to a supporting wooden framework. It probably dates to the mid-nineteenth century, at which period the frames on the portraits of her parents were changed to match.

Linked Publications

Sound Guide
Elizabeth Eger and Lucy Peltz, Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, 2008 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 13 March - 15 June 2008), p. 131
Elizabeth Eger and Lucy Peltz, Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, 2008 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 13 March - 15 June 2008), p. 131
Holmes, Richard, Insights: The Romantic Poets and Their Circle, 2005, p. 86
Holmes, Richard; Crane, David; Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantics and Revolutionaries: Regency portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, London, 2002, p. 53
Motion, Andrew, Interrupted Lives in Literature, 2004, p. 33
Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 561
Simon, Jacob, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, 1997 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 8 November 1996 - 9 February 1997), p. 43
Walker, Richard, Regency Portraits, 1985, p. 447
Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantic Icons, 1999, p. 95