The following chronology deals with significant dates in Southey’s life, from his birth in 1774 to the end of 1827, as well as listing his major publications. It will be updated to cover the remainder of his life (1828-1843) as future Parts of The Collected Letters are completed and published.
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1774 |
This print accompanies a chapter in which Dr. Syntax meets a country squire and announces that only farm animals would be proper subjects for his picturesque drawings. The squire invites Syntax back to his country house, introduces him to his wife and sister, and the group goes to the squire’s home farm where Syntax can sketch domestic animals from life.
In this print, a group of connoisseurs examines several paintings. Given that these paintings depict rural subjects, a topic of which the connoisseurs can have little knowledge, the print questions the competency of these professed experts and so satirizes the role of the connoisseur.
The print depicts an antiquarian engaged in the study of several ancient artifacts. The object that most engrosses him, the mummy, seems to both mirror his image and return his gaze. Consequently, the print conflates the student of antiques with the art objects he studies, troubling notions of subjectivity, objecthood, and alterity.
This gallery is a virtual stroll through the crowds of Romantic Britain in search of personifications of artistry. As an exercise in flânerie, this gallery juxtaposes and assembles for our view those figures who fashion themselves as artistic through their clothing, conduct, and gestures. These figures demonstrate the diverse ways in which artistic identity was being codified for appropriation and commodified for consumption, and so point to the multiplying intersections of art and commerce.
Though this image is intended to accurately represent the retreat of Napoleon and his forces from Moscow, the event is fictionalized by the depiction of the troops with an ample supply of clothes and equipment. In reality, the French forces were in poor condition at this point in the Napoleonic Wars.
This image depicts the retreat of Napoleon and his forces from Moscow, with particular emphasis on the harsh and nightmarish conditions of their journey.
This image depicts Napoleon posing majestically as the newly crowned Emperor of France.
This image depicts the coronation of Napoleon at Notre Dame. Signifying the controversial nature of his rise to power, Napoleon crowns himself rather than being symbolically invested by the collective will of the nation.
