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John Hamilton Reynolds

1 of 14 portraits by Joseph Severn

John Hamilton Reynolds, by Joseph Severn, 1818 -NPG 5052 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Regency Portraits Catalogue

John Hamilton Reynolds

by Joseph Severn
1818
3 7/8 in. x 2 7/8 in. (99 mm x 73 mm)
NPG 5052

Inscriptionback to top

Signed and dated on backing card: Josh Severn./pinxt. 1818.

This portraitback to top

The portrait was well-known in the 19th century and first reproduced in H. Buxton Forman's Poetry and Prose by John Keats, 1890 frontispiece. It later became associated with Keats himself, or possibly his brother George, its frame being labelled 'Keats by Severn'. Its identity as J. H. Reynolds was established by its then owner Miss P. Sichel who found a watercolour variant in Keats House, Hampstead, from the Leigh Brown-Lockyer Collection (Connoisseur, CLXX, 1969, p 36). A black cut-out silhouette is also in Keats House.

Physical descriptionback to top

Quarter-length to left with arms folded aged 22, light brown coat, dark brown waistcoat, white neckcloth and shirt; brown hair, brown eyes, pale complexion; scumbled green background.

Provenanceback to top

Severn's sister Marianne Green; her son Charles Green (d. 1898); Walter Sichel (d. 1933); his daughter Miss Penelope Sichel and bequeathed by her 1975.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, 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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