Matthew 'Monk' Lewis

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Matthew 'Monk' Lewis

by George Lethbridge Saunders, after Unknown artist
watercolour on ivory, based on a work from the early 19th century
4 1/2 in. x 3 5/8 in. (114 mm x 92 mm)
Given by Bernard Falk, 1927
Primary Collection
NPG 2171

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Linked publicationsback to top

  • Holmes, Richard; Crane, David; Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantics and Revolutionaries: Regency portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, 2002, p. 75
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 380
  • Walker, Richard, Miniatures: 300 Years of the English Miniature, 1998, p. 105 Read entry

    Matthew Lewis wrote his novel The Monk in ten weeks when he was an attaché, aged twenty, at The Hague. It is the sort of gothick fantasy laughed at by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. Scott, a great admirer, described 'Monk' Lewis as 'small and boyish, with queerish eyes - they projected like those of some insects, and were flattish on the orbit' (S. G. Lockhart, Life of Sir Walter Scott, Vol.1, p 255). He was boyish-looking for most of his life, which makes it difficult to date Saunders' miniature, probably a copy.

  • Walker, Richard, Regency Portraits, 1985, p. 315

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Events of 1800back to top

Current affairs

Widespread food riots after poor harvests of 1798-9. Theorist, Thomas Malthus, controversially argues that poverty and food shortages are an inevitable consequence of population growth, challenging assumptions that populousness was a sign of national prosperity and power. His thesis contributed forcefully to the debate over the existing Poor Law.

Art and science

William Wordsworth publishes his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads; a retrospective explanation of his experimental poems written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It becomes one of the best-known manifestos of Romantic literature.

International

Lord Castlereagh, Chief Secretary for Ireland, is the main architect of the Act of Union under which Ireland is merged with Great Britain and the Irish parliament is abolished.
British troops support successful uprising by Maltese against the French.
Napoleon is victorious against Austrians at Marengo and reconquers Italy.

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