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The Death of Chatterton
Henry Wallis · Symbolism & Art Nouveau
- Artist
- Henry Wallis (1830–1916)
- Date
- 1856
- Dimensions
- 62.2 x 93.3 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom
The Death of Chatterton shows the poet Thomas Chatterton lying dead on his bed in a London garret in 1770, at the age of seventeen. Poor and unrecognised, he had poisoned himself with arsenic.
A closer look
The young man lies sprawled across the narrow bed, one arm trailing to the floor, an empty bottle beside it and torn manuscripts scattered around. Through the open window the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral appears in the dawn light, the world of success that ignored him. A dying rose on the windowsill echoes his short life. Painted in the precise, brilliantly coloured style of the Pre-Raphaelites, the picture turned Chatterton into the Romantic symbol of the misunderstood genius.
More by Henry Wallis
Famous works elsewhere
- The Stonebreaker 1857
- The Room in Which Shakespeare Was Born 1853
- Thomas Love Peacock 1858
- Study of Nude and Draped Figures - A Rough Sketch In Brown Paint Of Two Reclining Figures. Centre, A Nude Female Lying With Arms Around The Waist Of A ... 1870
- Corner of an Eastern Courtyard 1870
- Chatterton (The Death of Chatterton) 1855