ABSTRACT
What is now remembered of the character of Joseph Severn derives from his companionship with John Keats during five months of an 86 – year–long life. It is perhaps the most dramatic foreshortening of any life in literary history. The events of September 1820 – February 1821 – when Severn was in his late twenties – have determined our perception of him to such an extent that few recall that he lived in Italy for almost forty years and served as British Consul to Rome from 1861 to 1872. Virtually no one is aware of Severn’s long friendship with William Gladstone, his connection to John Ruskin, or his association with many prominent figures of the nineteenth century, including King Leopold of Belgium, the Prussian minister Baron Christian Bunsen, Cardinal Thomas Weld, and the Dukes of Bedford and Devonshire. Most important, scarcely any attention has been paid to Severn’s career as an artist, except to acknowledge his many portraits of Keats. The existing archive has been mined for his association with the poet and so the material currently in print represents a decidedly unbalanced picture of his life and interests. One obvious reason that his numerous family letters have never been published is because of their focus on Severn’s own active career. The same holds true for his correspondence with William Gladstone. A remarkable feature of these collections and the newly rediscovered Townsend letters is their sustained attention to Severn’s artwork and their rare allusions to Keats.
