LONDON, ENGLAND.- The portrait of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) that the great Romantic poet considered “far more like [me] than any former attempt” has been bought at auction by the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere. The acquisition was supported by a grant of £20,340 from The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity, a significant grant from the MLA / V&A Purchase Grant Fund, and five private donors.

The portrait, dated 1812, is by the Royal Academician George Dawe. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year. It is the only firsthand representation of the poet in existence for the crucial years 1809-13. These years include: the beginnings and end of The Friend, Coleridge’s outstanding personal newspaper; his major quarrel with William Wordsworth (1770-1850); and the beginnings of Coleridge’s lectures on Shakespeare, Milton, literature and philosophy.

Coleridge’s own opinion of the portrait was unusually favourable (he was very disparaging about his own looks) and he sent it to Wordsworth’s great friend and patron Sir George Beaumont, describing it as “a chalk drawing of my face which I think far more like [me] than any former attempt”.

“This is a picture which shows one of Britain’s greatest sons at a crucial stage in his life: it has never been shown widely before and we intend, after conservation, to put it on regular public display at the Wordsworth Museum in Grasmere. It is a remarkable drawing in its own right, and shows the beginnings of Coleridge’s fantastic reinvention of himself as the Sage of Highgate” said David Wilson, the Robert Woof Director of the Wordsworth Trust.

David Barrie, Director of The Art Fund said, “In this beautifully executed drawing Coleridge is captured in a moment of contemplation, abandoning his book while his imagination takes over. It’s a suitably poetic work, and will make a fine addition to the Wordsworth Trust’s collection of Romantic portraits.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) is one of the great Romantic writers, author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan and Frost at Midnight among other works. He was a great friend of Wordsworth and they collaborated on Lyrical Ballads (1798), described by David Wilson as “the single most important volume of poetry ever published in English”. At the time of this portrait Coleridge had moved to London after spending two years as Wordsworth’s houseguest in Grasmere, in the heart of the English Lake District.

The acquisition could not come at a better time, as the Wordsworth Trust is shortly to open an exhibition centred around Coleridge’s greatest poem: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: the Poem and its Illustrators. David Wilson said “The exhibition will run from this November through to July next year, and for it we have selected the finest illustrations of the Ancient Mariner, drawing on the Wordsworth Trust’s pre-eminent collection of original illustrations and first editions - some of which are on public show for the first time - as well as other private collections. The addition of this superb portrait puts the finishing touch to this most comprehensive of exhibitions.”

The exhibition will be at the Wordsworth Museum from 22nd November until July 2007. The acquisition was supported by a grant of £20,340 from the Art Fund, as well as a significant grant the MLA / V&A Purchase Grant Fund and five private donors.