| Method | Stipple and line engraving |
| Artist | Thomas Illman after Richard Westall |
| Published | [c.1830] |
| Dimensions | Image 115 x 100 mm, Plate 163 x 112 mm, Sheet 181 x 139 mm |
| Notes |
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22nd January 1788 - 19th April 1824) was a celebrated British poet and leading figure of the British Romantic movement. A legend in his own lifetime throughout Europe, Byron was famous for his good looks and his brilliant, reckless personality. A poet of travel and romance, and a scintillating satirist, he lived abroad from 1816 in self-imposed exile and died of fever at Missolonghi where he had joined the Greeks in their fight for independence from Turkish rule. Byron's tragic demise placed the poet alongside his departed friends and fellow poets, Keats and Shelley, and secured his immortality with the British public. The profile portrait by Richard Westall, upon which this drawing was based, was painted in 1813 when Byron was twenty-five; he died eleven years later. In this print, the poet is seated in front of a large rock, his face in profile to the left and supported by his left arm. His open collared shirt is secured with a jewel, and he wears an open robe over his jacket. The landscape behind is suggestive of moonlight. The poet's signature forms the 'Byron' in the title. Thomas Illman (active 1812-1860) was a British stipple engraver. Richard Westall (1765-1836) was a history painter. He was apprenticed to a heraldic silver engraver in London in 1779 before studying at the Royal Academy Schools from 1785. He exhibited at the Academy regularly between 1784 and 1836, became an Associate in November 1792 and was elected an Academician in 1794. Not in O'Donoghue. Condition: Trimmed within plate and window mounted to an album page. |
| Framing | mounted |
| Price | £50.00 |
| Stock ID | 36330 |