Shelley's Ghost

It is not certain that this sensitively drawn miniature represents the young Shelley, but the long face, large blue eyes and gentle expression match the description given by his cousin, Thomas Medwin, who had known him at school:

Shelley was at this time tall for his age, slightly and delicately built, and rather narrow chested, with a complexion fair and ruddy, a face long rather than oval. His features, not regularly handsome, were set off by a profusion of silky brown hair, that curled naturally. The expression of countenance was one of exceeding sweetness and innocence. His blue eyes were very large and prominent ...

The miniature has curious origins. It was bought in 1832 by the art collector Edward Cheney, of Badger Hall, Shropshire, at the sale of the estate of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, the ‘Ladies of Llangollen’, who had charmed polite society with their exemplary retired life in rural North Wales. Cheney labelled the back of the frame: ‘Bought at the sale at Langollen. – Portrait of Percy Bysshe Shelley drawn by Antoine the Duc de Monpensier & presented by him to the ladies of Langollen –’.

The artist (1775-1807), a Bourbon prince exiled from revolutionary France, lived close to Shelley while he was a schoolboy at Syon House Academy near Twickenham. It must have been accepted as the poet by Sir Percy and Lady Shelley, who purchased the miniature at the Cheney Sale in 1885. They were enthusiastic, but not indiscriminate buyers of Shelleyan relics, so presumably they were satisfied with its provenance. The portrait must also have accorded with their imagined idea of Shelley's boyish appearance, for they commissioned a colour copy of it as a partner for a miniature of Mary Shelley.

The first engraving of the portrait was published in 1879, and Edward Dowden reproduced it as the frontispiece to volume one of his Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley (London: 1886).