Thomas Chatterton Redux: The Wallis Painting
How posthumous mythic status was achieved.
On 5-May-1856 John Ruskin reviewed Henry Wallis’s painting of Thomas Chatterton for his notes on the 1856 Royal Academy Exhibition. Here is the painting which helped create the myth of Chatterton as the doomed poet:
The date of Ruskin’s review corresponded to the transit of Jupiter to the Midheaven of Chatterton’s natal horoscope. Chatterton’s natal victor, Mercury/Sagittarius, transits as Mercury/Taurus conjunct the malefic fixed star Algol consistent with Chatterton’s appearance as a depressed suicidal artist.
The truth is a bit more complicated. Based on laboratory testing of a stain on one of Chatterton’s books which revealed traces of opiates, it is more likely that Chatterton died from an accidental overdose of Laudanum (mixture of opium and alcohol) taken to counter the painful effects of Mercury treatment for venereal disease. Or perhaps he did overdose from Laudanum. We will never know except that it is unlikely arsenic was involved.
What is true is that Wallis’s painting elevated the myth of Chatterton as the misunderstood and rejected poet of genious later idolized by 19th century English Romantic poets. This 30 minute BBC video is a great summary of the Chatterton tale and the impact of the Wallis painting on his reputation.