How you can use this image
This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).
Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.
The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
Notes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
A poet and man of letters, Southey was a youthful republican whose enthusiasm for the French Revolution can be seen in The Fall of Robespierre which he wrote with Coleridge in 1794. In 1803 he joined Coleridge in the Lake District where he met Wordsworth. The three were dubbed the 'Lake School' by the critic Francis Jeffrey. Southey was Poet Laureate from 1813 to his death. Despite Byron's quip about his 'blank verse and blanker prose', his prose is commonly regarded as superior to his poetry. He wrote numerous essays and reviews for the periodical press. His association with the Tory Quarterly Review signalled the beginning of his role as a spokesman for the conservative establishment. This portrait was painted for Joseph Cottle, the Bristol bookseller who published Southey's Joan of Arc (1796).
Title
Robert Southey
Date
1795
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 54.6 x W 44.5 cm
Accession number
193
Acquisition method
Purchased, 1865
Work type
Painting
