Joseph Severn / a life : the rewards of friendship / Sue Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Sue, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Severn, Joseph, 1793-1879.

Severn, Joseph.

Severn, Joseph, 1793-1879--Friends and associates.

Keats, John, 1795-1821--Friends and associates.

Keats, John.

Painters--Great Britain--Biography.

Painters.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 417 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This is a biography of Joseph Severn, Keats's best-known but most controversial friend, who is buried next to him in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. Severn accompanied the dying poet to Italy & was virtually the only witness of his last days. Sue Brown reassesses Severn's character & the nature of his friendship with Keats. This biography of Joseph Severn (1793-1879), the best known but most controversial of Keats's friends, is based on a mass of newly discovered information, much of it still in private hands. Severn accompanied the dying Keats to Italy, nursed him in Rome and reported on his last weeks there in a famous series of moving letters. After Keats's death in relative obscurity, Severn pressed hard for an early biography and a more fitting memorial in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.In the nineteenth century Severn's friendship with Keats was seen as a model of devoted masculine companionship and he was reburied by popular acclaim next to Keats in 1882. In the twentieth century, by contrast, he was denigrated as an unreliable, self-promoting witness. Sue Brown's book fills a major gap in studies of Keats and his circle. It reassesses Severn's character, friendship with Keats, and influence on the posthumous development of the poet's fame and provides new information onKeats's death.The significance of Severn's artistic career has previously been downplayed. This book offers the first full assessment of his work and of his turbulent spell as British Consul in Rome from 1860 to 1871. Keats was not Severn's only famous friend. For most of his adult life Severn was at the heart of the large, lively British community in Rome welcoming amongst others Gladstone, who became his most important patron, Ruskin, Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Turner, Samuel Palmer, David Wilkie, and manymore. He maintained long friendships with Leigh Hunt, Mary Shelley, Charles Eastlake, Richard Monckton Milnes, amongst others, and enjoyed a rich family life.

Contents:

Introduction; 1. A Hazardous Childhood; 2. The Royal Academy Student; 3. Painter and Poet; 4. The Warm South; 5. Piazza di Spagna; 6. 'Thanks Joe'; 7. 'The Most Striking Year of My Life'; 8. The RA Pensioner; 9. 'Searching for Fame and Fortune'; 10. Love, Marriage, and Persecution; 11. 'Everybody's Man and a Very Obliging Creature': Severn in his Roman Prime; 12. Going Home; 13. The Passion for Fresco; 14. The Friend of Keats; 15. An Interlude in Pimlico; 16. British Consul; 17. The New Rome; 18. Keeper of the Flame; 19. A Fitting Place

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-19-160987-0

0-19-157184-9