Daniel Maclise’s portraits of women, with their Romantic mood and understated symbolism, are among the best of his work, writes Julian Campbell
Following Daniel Maclise’s death in 1870, a large volume of his drawings, A Gallery of Illustrious Literary Characters, was published. First appearing in Fraser’s Magazine in the 1830s, these included studies of the leading writers of the day, accompanied by their biographies by William Maginn. There were eighty-six drawings by Maclise in the volume, but only six were of women. The novelist Sydney, Lady Morgan was included, as was the social theorist Harriet Martineau, wittily depicted with a cat crouching on her back. This weighting towards prominent men was not unusual in the Victorian era, but is surprising in the context of Maclise’s oeuvre, in which women played such an important part. Indeed, they were a central preoccupation throughout his career.
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