Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Joseph Severn (1793-1879), Painter and Civil Servant

A painting by himself of 1876 is reproduced S. Birkenhead, Illustrious Friends (1965), facing p 205, and Keats-Shelley Memorial Bulletin, XXI (1970), facing 40; a drawing by S. Kirkup of 1822 is reproduced C. W. Sharp, Life and Letters of Joseph Severn (1892), frontispiece, and S. Birkenhead, frontispiece; an engraving, after a portrait of c.1820 (probably a miniature), is reproduced C. W. Sharpe, facing p 248; there is a reproduction (apparently from a book) after a miniature of similar date (example in NPG); a detail from a group photograph of c.1872 is reproduced John Keats: Letters of Joseph Severn to H. Buxton Forman (privately printed, Oxford, 1933), frontispiece.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.