Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1 portrait matching 'NPG 192'

Overview
Extended Catalogue Entry

by Peter Vandyke
oil on canvas, circa 1795
22 in. x 18 in. (559 mm x 457 mm)
Purchased, 1865
Primary Collection
NPG 192

Sitterback to top

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Poet. Sitter in 10 portraits.

Artistback to top

Peter Vandyke (1729-1799), Painter. Artist or producer associated with 3 portraits.

This portraitback to top

'He is a wonderful man,' wrote Dorothy Wordsworth, 'His eye is large and full … such an eye as would receive from a heavy soul the fullest expression; but it speaks every emotion of his animated mind.' This portrait was painted for Joseph Cottle who published Coleridge's first volume of poems in 1796.

Related worksback to top

NPG 193: Robert Southey (companion portrait)

Linked publicationsback to top

Smartify image discovery app
100 Writers, p. 48
Holmes, Richard, The Romantic Poets and Their Circle, 2013, p. 58
Holmes, Richard, Insights: The Romantic Poets and Their Circle, 2005, p. 46
Holmes, Richard; Crane, David; Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantics and Revolutionaries: Regency portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, 2002, p. 31
Ribeiro, Aileen, The Gallery of Fashion, 2000, p. 152
Ribeiro, Aileen; Blackman, Cally, A Portrait of Fashion: Six Centuries of Dress at the National Portrait Gallery, 2015, p. 152
Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 135
Walker, Richard, Regency Portraits, 1985, p. 118
Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantic Icons, 1999, p. 61

Subjects & Themesback to top

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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