Portrait of John Keats from an original exhibited in 1819

Severn’s miniature shows Keats aged about 23. It is the best known image of the poet, and several posthumous portraits and innumerable engravings were based on it. The original watercolour was exhibited by Severn at the Royal Academy in 1819, together with his painting 'Hermia and Helena’. Keats himself was fond of it, and gave it to Fanny Brawne shortly before he left for Italy in 1820. This is one of the several copies Severn made for Keats’s friends. It was bequeathed to the Museum by Charles Wentworth Dilke, and is also said to have once belonged to Fanny Brawne.

Severn, Joseph, 1793-1879 (artist)

no date

coloured oil-based paints

portraits
oil painting (technique)
ivory (material)

Keats, John, 1795-1821

Part of the Sir Charles Dilke bequest, 1911.

KSH

Severn Room

ART-018