CIRCLE OF THOMAS LAWRENCE (BRISTOL 1769-1830 LONDON)
Portrait of lady, traditionally held to be Caroline Anne Southey (née Bowles)
bears later inscription attached to the reverse
oil on canvas
90 x 70 cm

Caroline Anne Bowles (1786–1854) was a poet and prose writer. Born near Lymington, Hampshire, the only child of Captain Charles Bowles (East Indian Company, retired) and his wife Anne. Educated at home, Caroline grew up among adults in a largely female household where her writing and drawing accomplishments were encouraged from an early age. Left alone and impoverished at the age of 30, she sought advice about publication from Robert Southey, thus beginning a correspondence (pub. 1880) and friendship lasting twenty years until their marriage in 1839 after the death of his first wife. Before this she published five volumes of verse, two of prose sketches (Chapters on Churchyards, 1829), and one of mixed genre (Solitary Hours, 1826). Her blank verse autobiography, The Birth-Day (1836), was much admired by the Wordsworth household, but her work also encompassed comedy, satire, and social protest. Southey acknowledged her superior poetic gift, but owing to her choice of anonymous publication her reputation was never consolidated in her lifetime. Her Poetical Works appeared posthumously in 1867.