Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Sitterback to top

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

Artistback to top

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

This portraitback to top

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 publicationsback to top

• Audio Guide
• Eger, Elizabeth; Peltz, Lucy, Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, 2008 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 13 March to 15 June 2008), p. 131
• Eger, Elizabeth; Peltz, Lucy, Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, 2008 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 13 March to 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, 2002, p. 53
• Motion, Andrew (edited), 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

Subject/Themeback to top

• On display at the Gallery