Subject: 'jack-a-dandy' gentleman / aristocrat
Culture: English
Setting: Regency / later Georgian period, England early 19thc
Manchester Art Gallery > Myth, Dream and Realty: The Human Form 1700-1920 *
"Byron's Early Love, 'A Dream of Annesley Hall' 1856 Edward Matthew Ward 1816-79 Oil on canvas
As a youth, the Romantic poet Byron was infatuated with his neighbour, Mary Chaworth.
Here he watches her dancing with her betrothed at a ball in her home, Annesley Hall, in 1805.
"The painting is full of symbolic meaning. Roses with thorns refer to the beauty and pain of love,
while the lovesick poet's exclusion from the warm room is emphasised by the cold moonlight outside." ...
