Portrait of the Day: George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
Past event archive
16 February 2013, 12:00
Room 18
Free
- Gallery Talk
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
replica by Thomas Phillips
circa 1835 (1813)
NPG 142
The poet Byron was famous for his swaggering good looks and his brilliant, reckless personality. The publication of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812) made him famous overnight. He was also a scathing critic and his Don Juan (1819-24) is the ultimate satire of Regency society. He lived abroad from 1816 in self-imposed exile and became an attraction for English tourists. A lifelong supporter of liberal causes, he joined the Greeks in their fight against Ottoman rule but died of fever in Missolonghi in 1824.
Programme subject to change
