Amelia Curran (painter)

Amelia Curran
Born1775
Dublin or Cork, Ireland
Died1847 (aged 71–72)
Rome, Kingdom of Italy
FatherJohn Philpot Curran
Relatives

Amelia Curran (1775 – 1847) was an Irish painter active in Dublin and Rome, known for her friendship with Percy and Mary Shelley.[1][2][3]

Early life

Curran was born in 1775 in either Dublin or Cork to John Philpot Curran, a politician and lawyer, and Sarah Curran (née Creagh).[2][4] The eldest of nine siblings, Curran was the elder sister of the musician, poet and composer Sarah Curran.[2] During her early childhood the family moved between Dublin, where her father practised as a barrister, and Priory Glen, County Cork, where her maternal grandfather worked as a physician.[2] The family moved to The Priory in Rathfarnham in 1790, where Curran's sister Gertrude died in 1792 after falling out a window.[5][6]

Gertrude (her father's favorite daughter) was buried in the grounds of the house and Curran's father spend hours watching her grave from his window; he also withdraw affection from his other children and her parent's marriage deteriorated.[5][6][7][8] In 1795, Curran's father threw her mother, pregnant following an affair with The Rev Michael Sandys, out of the family home and forbade her from contacting their children; Curran took over the running of the family home.[1][5][6] Her father brought legal proceedings against Sandys for having a "criminal conversation" with his wife, in which his own series of affairs were brought into the public spotlight.[5][6][9][7]

Career

Portrait of Percy Bysshe Shelley by Amelia Curran (1819)[10]
Portrait of Claire Clairmont, by Amelia Curran

In 1810, through her father, she met novelist William Godwin [11] and Aaron Burr, the American politician. Soon after, she met her lifelong friend, Percy Bysshe Shelley. In 1812 Percy Shelley traveled to Ireland to campaign against the injustices done there under British rule and was introduced to her father.[11][12] 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 in 1819.[11][13]

She later traveled to Rome and built up a close friendship and correspondence with Shelley's second wife Mary Shelley.[3] In 1821, Curran moved to Naples, where she converted to Catholicism. Moving to Paris the next year, it was falsely rumoured that she had married and separated from a man. Curran returned to Rome in 1824 to spend the rest of her life.

Curran painted Percy Shelley several times.[10] 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[14] and William Holl[15] among others.[16] They are noted for their androgynous features, and their striking similarity to Guido Reni's painting of Beatrice Cenci, which was one of the poet's favorite pictures. Curran's 1819 portrait of Shelley[17][10] was included in the 1905 book Women Painters of the World and hangs at the National Portrait Gallery in London.[3][18]

Curran also painted a portrait of Claire Clairmont[19] and made copies of several Renaissance Madonnas. During the same spring of 1819 when painting William Shelley, Curran received Percy and Mary Shelley for individual portraits along with Clairmont.[11] Curran had known Mary and Claire since childhood, when she had accompanied her father on visits to their father and step-father, William Godwin, in London.[11][20]

Personal life

On 30 August 1847, Curran died in Rome.[2] Curran was cremated and buried at the Sant'Isidoro a Capo le Case; the future Cardinal Newman presided at her funeral Mass.[2] A memorial plaque for Curran was later commissioned by Valentine Lawless, 2nd Baron Cloncurry, which was subsequently placed in the church.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Clarke, Frances (October 2009). "Curran, Amelia". Dictionary of Irish Biography (online ed.). Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. doi:10.3318/dib.002315.v1. Retrieved 3 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Peach, Annette (8 August 2024) [23 September 2004]. "Curran, Amelia (1775–1847), painter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/59575. Retrieved 3 August 2026. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  3. 1 2 3 "Amelia Curran (1775-1847), Artist; painter". NPG Collections. London: National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 3 August 2026.
  4. ↑ Amelia Curran in Bénézit
  5. 1 2 3 4 Byrne, Angela (8 June 2023). "Curran [married name Sturgeon], Sarah (1782–1808), fiancée of Irish revolutionary Robert Emmet and subject of romantic legend". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.59353. Retrieved 2 August 2026. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  6. 1 2 3 4 Kleinman, Sylvie; Clarke, Frances (October 2009). "Curran, Sarah". Dictionary of Irish Biography (online ed.). Royal Irish Academy. doi:10.3318/dib.002323.v1. Retrieved 2 August 2026.}
  7. 1 2 Kelly, James (8 August 2024) [23 September 2004]. "Curran, John Philpot (1750–1817), politician and lawyer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6950. Retrieved 2 August 2026. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  8. ↑ Geoghegan, Patrick (October 2009). "Curran, John Philpot". Dictionary of Irish Biography (online ed.). Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. doi:10.3318/dib.002320.v1. Retrieved 3 August 2026.}
  9. ↑ Byrne, Angela (2022). "Life after Emmet's death: Sarah Curran's literary and friendship circle". Irish Studies Review. 30 (2): 119–135. doi:10.1080/09670882.2022.2076555. Retrieved 3 August 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 Curran, Amelia. "Percy Bysshe Shelley | Art UK". www.artuk.org. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Polack 2011, p. 25.
  12. ↑ Bieri & Shelley 2008, p. 196.
  13. ↑ Bieri & Shelley 2008, p. 455.
  14. ↑ Clint, Alfred. "Percy Bysshe Shelley". www.npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  15. ↑ "Percy Bysshe Shelley". www.npg.org.uk. William Holl Sr, or William Holl Jr. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 24 October 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  16. ↑ Finden, William. "Percy Bysshe Shelley". www.npg.org.uk. Black & Armstrong (pub), 1819; stipple and line engraving. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  17. ↑ "Newstead Abbey | Discover Artworks". Art UK. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  18. ↑ Women Painters of the World on Project Gutenberg
  19. ↑ Curran, Amelia. "Claire Clairmont (1798–1879) | Art UK". www.artuk.org. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  20. ↑ Sunstein 1989, p. 58.

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Walter Shaw Sparrow (ed.) (1901) Women painters of the world. From the time of Caterina Vigri, 1413–1463 to Rosa Bonheur and the present day. London : Hodder. OCLC 946226645

Wikimedia Commons logo Media related to Amelia Curran at Wikimedia Commons

This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.