William Wordsworth
(1770-1850), Poet LaureateRegency Portraits Catalogue Entry
Sitter in 23 portraits
With Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wordsworth published Lyrical Ballads (1798) which marked the development of a new type of poetry dealing with feeling and imagination. For most of his life he lived in the Lake District, and the main theme of his extensive poetry was man's relation to nature. His masterpiece is commonly considered to be The Prelude (1850), a long verse-autobiography that includes Wordsworth's journey through revolutionary France in 1791, 'Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven!' He abandoned his early republicanism and was appointed Poet Laureate in 1843. Wordsworth experienced recurring episodes of the infectious disease trachoma from 1805 until his death.
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by Robert Hancock
black, red and brown chalk and pencil, 1798
NPG 450
by Benjamin Robert Haydon
plaster cast of life-mask, 1815
On display in the Room 18 pastel case at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 2020
by Benjamin Robert Haydon
chalk, 1818
NPG 3687
by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey
pencil, pen and ink, 1820
NPG 316a(146)
by Sir William Boxall
oil on panel, 1831
NPG 4211
by Edward William Wyon
wax medallion, 1835
NPG 2680
by Benjamin Robert Haydon
oil on canvas, 1842
On display in Room 18 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 1857
by and after Henry William Pickersgill
oil on canvas, circa 1850
On display at Dove Cottage & Wordsworth Museum, Grasmere
NPG 104
by W. Baldry, after Benjamin Robert Haydon
albumen carte-de-visite, 1860s (1842)
NPG Ax46229
after William Shuter
aquatint photogravure on India-laid paper, 1798
NPG D36299
after Robert Hancock
stipple engraving, (1798)
NPG D8809
after Robert Hancock
stipple engraving, (1798)
NPG D8810
after Robert Hancock
stipple engraving, (1798)
NPG D8811
by Henry Meyer, published by Henry Colburn, after Richard Carruthers
stipple engraving, published 1 February 1819
NPG D8807
by Henry Meyer, after Richard Carruthers
stipple engraving, circa 1819
NPG D8808
by Henry Meyer, published by Henry Colburn, after Richard Carruthers
stipple engraving, published 1 February 1819
NPG D8813
by Robert Cabell Roffe, after Sir William Boxall
stipple engraving, circa 1831-1835
NPG D8812
after Daniel Maclise
pen and ink, (published 1832)
NPG D34554
by James Bromley, published by Moon, Boys & Graves, published by James Ryman, published by Robert Roe, after Sir William Boxall
mezzotint, published 10 June 1832
NPG D36297
by Edward McInnes, published by Sir Francis Graham Moon, 1st Bt, after Margaret Gillies
mezzotint, published 6 August 1841
NPG D36298
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