Joseph Severn

This modern scholarly edition of the letters and memoirs of Joseph Severn, English painter and deathbed companion of Keats, is the first ever to include letters from a remarkable collection of recently discovered correspondence. Scott challenges traditional assumptions about Severn's life and character by offering new information about his early artistic success in Italy, his work as an artist in England, and his experiences as British Consul in Rome. The volume also features three important memoirs that previously appeared only in inaccurate excerpts and thirty-three illustrations that demonstrate the range of Severn's talents as a painter. Severn's friends included William Gladstone, Leigh Hunt, John Ruskin, and Mary Shelley. The edition, which includes a detailed chronology of Severn's life, an index of the newly discovered letters, and a ledger of Severn's patrons, paintings, and commissions, will appeal to literary biographers and Keats scholars, as well as art and cultural historians of the Romantic and Victorian eras.