Joseph Severn - Marriage and Family

Marriage and Family

In 1828 Severn married Elizabeth Montgomerie, the natural daughter of Archibald, Lord Montgomerie (1773–1814) and the ward of Lady Westmoreland, one of the artist's patrons in Rome. Together they had seven children, three of whom became noteworthy artists: Walter and Arthur Severn, and Ann Mary Newton, who married the archeologist and Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum, Charles Thomas Newton. Mary had a successful painting career in England, supporting the family for a time and executing a number of portraits of the Royal Family. Her tragic early death from measles at the age of 32 came as a terrible blow to Severn and adversely affected his own health. In 1871, Arthur Severn married Joan Ruskin Agnew, a cousin of the Victorian art and social critic John Ruskin. The Severns had another child, Henry, who died as an infant in a crib accident. He is buried between Keats and Severn in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.