Daniel MacliseIrish, 1806–1870William Godwin, novelist and historian
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “William Godwin, novelist and historian” now? Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Not on view at present. Checked September 25, 2026.
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
This drawing by Daniel Maclise portrays the writer William Godwin (1756-1836) in later life. A printed version of the image was published in Fraser's Magazine in 1834, accompanying a brief article about Godwin, the author of Political Justice (1793), Caleb Williams (1794), Thoughts on Man (1831) and many other literary and philosophical works. Godwin's wife Mary Wollstonecraft was the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Their daughter Mary wrote Frankenstein (1818) and married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Maclise produced many portraits for Fraser's Magazine in the 1830s, using the pseudonym Alfred Croquis. The monogram AC appears towards the bottom left of the Godwin drawing, in reverse.
Read on
The V&A's National Art Library holds the original manuscripts of many of Godwin's best-known texts, including Political Justice and Caleb Williams. The manuscripts - and the drawing by Maclise - were bequeathed to the Museum by John Forster (1812-1876), who admired Godwin's work and visited him in 1832.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Details
- Accession number
- F.87:13
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
