JOSEPH

See also:

• SEVERN
• JOSEPH SEVERN (1793-1879)

SEVERN (1793-1879)  , English portrait. and subject painter, was born at Hoxton on the 7th of December 1793, his father, a musician, coming of an old Gloucestershire family . During his earlier years he practised portraiture as a miniaturist; and, having studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, in 1818 he gained the gold medal for his " Una and the Red Cross Knight in the Cave of Despair." In 1819 he exhibited at the Academy his " Hermia and Helena." He was an intimate friend of Keats the poet, whom he accompanied to Italy in 182o and nursed till his death in 1821 . His picture of "The Death of Alcibiades " then obtained for him an Academy travelling studentship, and he returned to Rome, where he lived till 1841, marrying in 1828 the daughter of Lord Montgomerie, a ward of Lady Westmoreland, one of his chief patrons, and mingling in the congenial art circles of the city . In 1861, after living in England for nineteen years, mainly for the education of his children, he was appointed British consul at Rome, a post which he held till 1872, and during a great part of the time he also acted as Italian consul . His most remarkable work is the " Spectre Ship" from the Ancient Mariner . He painted ", Cordelia watching by the Bed of Lear," the " Roman Beggar," " Ariel," " The Fountain," and " Rienzi," executed a large altar-piece for the church of St Paul at Rome, and produced many portraits, including one of Baron Bunsen and several of Keats . He died at Rome on. the 3rd of August 1879 . He had six children, ofwhom Walter, Arthur and Ann (wife of Sir Charles Newton) were well-known artists . See the Life and Letters, by William Sharp (1892) .