Ann Mary Newton was born in Rome, where her father
Joseph Severn was the British Consul. Joseph Severn was an artist and a friend of the poet
Keats. Newton was taught to draw by her father, and then on the Severn family's return to England in 1841, studied with
George Richmond, who employed her to produce copies of portraits he had painted. at the age of thirty-three, having had no children. Queen Victoria mentions her tragic early death in her Journal of 7 January 1866: "Greatly shocked at the death of Mrs Newton, (Miss Severn) a pretty, clever young artist, who painted several of the family & did also beautiful copies of the Old Masters". Her work is included in the collections of the
National Portrait Gallery, London and the
Tate Gallery, London. ==See also==