Amelia Curran (1775 – 1847) was an Irish portrait painter.

Biography

Portrait of Percy Bysshe Shelley by Curran, 1819

Amelia Curran was the eldest child of the barrister and wit

John Philpot Curran John Philpot Curran (24 July 1750 – 14 October 1817) was an Irish orator, politician, wit, lawyer and judge, who held the office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland. He was renowned for his representation in 1780 of Father Neale, a Catholic prie ...

and his wife Sarah Creagh. Her sister

Sarah Curran Sarah Curran (1782 – 5 May 1808) was the youngest daughter of John Philpot Curran, an Irish barrister celebrated for his defence of United Irishmen, and his wife Sarah Curran (née Creagh). She was the great love of the Irish patriot Robert E ...

was the fiancée of

Robert Emmet Robert Emmet (4 March 177820 September 1803) was an Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader. Following the suppression of the United Irish uprising in 1798, he sought to organise a renewed attempt to overthrow the British Crown and Protes ...

. Amelia was a member of the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

for the early part of her life. In 1810, through her father, she met novelist

William Godwin William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for ...

and

Aaron Burr Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Burr's legacy is defined by his famous personal conflict with Alexand ...

, the American politician. Soon after, she met her lifelong friend,

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

. In 1812 Percy Shelley traveled to Ireland to campaign against the injustices done there under British rule and was introduced to her father. Curran also painted a portrait of Shelley's three-and-a-half-year-old son William (called "Willmouse") in Rome, just before Willmouse's death from

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

in 1819. She later traveled to Rome and built up a close friendship and correspondence with Shelley's second wife

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

.Amelia Curran
in the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

In 1821, Curran moved to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, where she converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Moving to Paris the next year, it was falsely rumored that had she married and separated from a man. Curran returned to Rome in 1824 to spend the rest of her life. Curran painted Shelley several times. These are among the few paintings of Shelley painted in his lifetime, and the only ones of him in his adulthood which was copied by several artists including

Alfred Clint Alfred Clint (1807–1883) was an English marine painter. Life Clint was the fifth and youngest son by the first marriage of George Clint, A.R.A. He was born in Alfred Place, Bedford Square, London, on 22 March 1807. He acquired the technic ...

and William Holl among others. They are noted for their androgynous features, and their striking similarity to

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious ...

's painting of

Beatrice Cenci Beatrice Cenci (; 6 February 157711 September 1599) was a Roman noblewoman who murdered her father, Count Francesco Cenci. She was beheaded in 1599 after a lurid murder trial in Rome that gave rise to an enduring legend about her. Life Beatri ...

, which was one of the poet's favorite pictures. Curran's 1819 portrait of Shelley was included in the 1905 book ''

Women Painters of the World ''Women Painters of the World, from the time of Caterina Vigri, 1413–1463, to Rosa Bonheur and the present day'', assembled and edited by Walter Shaw Sparrow, lists an overview of prominent women painters up to 1905, the year of publication. Th ...

'' and hangs at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Curran also painted a portrait of

Claire Clairmont Clara Mary Jane Clairmont (27 April 1798 – 19 March 1879), or Claire Clairmont as she was commonly known, was the stepsister of the writer Mary Shelley and the mother of Lord Byron's daughter Allegra. She is thought to be the subject of a poe ...

and made copies of several

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

Madonnas. During the same spring of 1819 when painting William Shelley, Curran received Percy and

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of scie ...

for individual portraits along with Clairmont. Curran knew Mary and Clair as the stepdaughters of William Godwin since their childhood, from visiting their London home with her father. Amelia Curran died in 1847 in Rome, and was cremated to rest in the Church of St. Isidore. The future

Cardinal Newman John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, academic, intellectual, philosopher, polymath, historian, writer, scholar and poet, first as an Anglican priest and later as a Catholic priest and cardi ...

presided at her funeral

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Curran, Amelia 1775 births 1847 deaths 18th-century Irish painters 19th-century Irish painters 19th-century Irish women artists 18th-century Irish women artists Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Women of the Regency era Artists from Dublin (city) Irish women painters Irish expatriates in Italy Irish expatriates in France

Biography

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links