Sara Coleridge; Edith May Warter

1 portrait matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Double portraits'

Sara Coleridge; Edith May Warter, by Edward Nash, 1820 -NPG 4029 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Sara Coleridge; Edith May Warter

by Edward Nash
1820
5 5/8 in. x 4 in. (143 mm x 102 mm)
NPG 4029

This portraitback to top

This miniature was bequeathed together with another of Robert Southey, also by Nash (NPG 4028). The name of the artist was not given at the time, and both miniatures were until recently described as by unknown artists. Southey's letter to G. C. Bedford of 6 November 1820 (Warter, III, 212-13), however, undoubtedly refers to them:

'Nash, who is on his way to town, has made an excellent portrait of him [Cuthbert, Southey's youngest son]; a tolerable miniature of my poetship; and a double miniature of Sara and Edith which you will be much pleased with.'
I am most grateful to Bertram Davis for pointing out this reference, and for providing corroborative evidence of the authorship of the miniatures. Mr Davis knew Mrs Boult, who was never in any doubt that they were the work of Nash. There are also further references to his own miniature in Southey's correspondence (see, for example, The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles, edited by Edward Dowden (1881), p 151). Nash had travelled with him on the continent and became a close friend, staying several times with the Southeys at Greta Hall, Keswick, between 1815 and 1820.

Referenceback to top

NPG Annual Report, 1957-8 (1959), p 4.

Warter 1856
Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, edited J. W. Warter (1856), III, 212-13.

Physical descriptionback to top

Sara Coleridge - delicate complexion, blue eyes, brown hair. In a light blue dress with white lace sleeves and neck. Edith Southey - pale complexion, blue eyes, light brown hair. In a green dress with white sleeves, and a white lace neck and gold chain. Red roses in her hair. At left distant view of blue sky. Behind at centre, green wall or pillar. Behind at right red curtain.

Provenanceback to top

By descent to Edith Southey's granddaughter, Mrs E. A. Boult, and bequeathed by her, 1957.


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.

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