Robert Southey
1 portrait
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Robert Southey
by Peter Vandyke
oil on canvas, circa 1795
21 1/2 in. x 17 1/2 in. (546 mm x 445 mm)
Purchased, 1865
Primary Collection
NPG 193
On display in Room 17 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery
Artistback to top
- Peter Vandyke (1729-1799), Painter. Artist or producer associated with 3 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This portrait was painted for Joseph Cottle, the Bristol bookseller who published Southey's Joan of Arc (1796). Even Southey's long hair was a sign of youthful dissent: he had refused to have his 'mane shorn' by his college barber.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Smartify image discovery app
- Holmes, Richard, The Romantic Poets and Their Circle, 2013, p. 62
- Holmes, Richard, Insights: The Romantic Poets and Their Circle, 2005, p. 50
- Holmes, Richard; Crane, David; Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantics and Revolutionaries: Regency portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, 2002, p. 29
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 577
- Walker, Richard, Regency Portraits, 1985, p. 469
- Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantic Icons, 1999, p. 63
Events of 1795back to top
Current affairs
George, Prince of Wales is forced to marry Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick, despite having secretly married Maria Fitzherbert in 1785.Widespread rioting prompts the introduction of the Speenhamland system of welfare supplements which are linked to the price of bread.
Treasonable Practices Act is passed against open criticism of government.
Art and science
The MP Matthew Gregory 'Monk' Lewis publishes his notorious gothic novel The Monk to success and scandal because of its immoral content.Mungo Park explores the course of the River Niger.
International
Wolfe Tone, founder of The Society of United Irishmen, departs for America after being implicated in high treason in Ireland. Exiled in Philadelphia, he soon leaves for France to ask revolutionaries for assistance.Joseph Haydn composes the English Canzonettas during his second stay in London.
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