Unknown - portrait of Percey Shelley

This is a rare miniature portrait of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). He was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron. The novelist Mary Shelley was his second wife.

The miniature is in a contemporary frame which is inscribed "Percy B Shelley 1792-1822". The writing style appears to be consistent with a date of around 1825.

The miniature was acquired via a dealer who had purchased it as part of a New York collection including quality miniatures by artists such as George Engleheart. The owner of the collection had previously contacted me about a possible sale of the collection, but I advised it was too large and valuable for me to be able to contemplate making an offer. I therefore recommended a dealer who could handle the total collection.

Following this the dealer split up and sold the collection, with this miniature offered on eBay, where it was acquired for this Artists and Ancestors collection. The previous owner advised that the miniature had been acquired from a New York dealer around 1970.

I concede that I am unable to categorically state it is an original portrait of Shelley. There are very few known portraits of Percy Shelley, with many examples based upon the oil portrait showing below. I have been unable to find another portrait of Shelley in the same pose as in this miniature.

That suggests it is either genuine, an artist's impression, or a portrait of another man housed in a case inscribed to Shelley. It seems unlikely that an artist would create an impression so different to the known portraits of Shelley. It also seems unlikely that a case such as this would be made and inscribed without including a portrait of Shelley. The artist is not recognisable as one of the more important artists of the early 19C, so there is little help from that aspect.

Adding to speculation is that Shelley was from a wealthy family and the commissioning of miniature portraits of family members by wealthy families was the norm in the early 19C. Hence, it is to be expected that there would have been at least one miniature portrait of Shelley as a young man.

The tousled hair fits with known portraits of Shelley, as does the nose and mouth. The sitter has blue or grey eyes, which fits with the oil portrait of Shelley when viewed closely. The age of the sitter in this portrait is to be that of a man aged 16 to 20, wearing clothes with high collars, which dates it to around 1810. It therefore appears to be a formal portrait of a young man, painted for family use, in the case of Shelley before he adopted an "open shirt" look.

Thus, the portrait is displayed as likely a genuine miniature of Percy Shelley, with comments welcomed from Shelley scholars. 1382

Other portraits in this collection connected to Percy Shelley include Helen Shelley View and Lord Byron View

The artist for this miniature is unknown, but the portrait is identified as being Helen Shelley who married a Mr Robert Parker (born 1754, wed 1782, buried at Bath 1837) of Bath. Helen Shelley (1755-1839) was the sister of Sir Timothy Shelley and he was the father of Percy Bysshe Shelley. This Helen Shelley was the aunt of the famous poet.

However, the clothes and hair seem too recent to be that Helen Shelley, as they date closer to 1820. Thus it is seems more likely to be Helen Shelley (1799-10 May 1885), the sister of Percy Bysshe Shelley. This Helen Shelley appears not to have married and would be aged about 20 in the portrait. It is not uncommon for later family members to get their family histories a bit mixed and pick the wrong generation when adding a written note to an earlier family portrait. Hence it appears later family members knew it was Helen Shelley, but picked the wrong Helen.

This miniature portrait is painted in enamels. On the reverse it is inscribed "Byron after T Phillips R.A. Aug 1849 Painted by Henry P Bone Enamel Painter to Her Majesty H.R.H Prince Albert & etc, & etc."