author
Sidney Colvin
1845–1927
Best remembered as a close friend and editor of Robert Louis Stevenson, this English critic and curator also helped shape the study of art and literature in Victorian Britain. His life joined scholarship, museum work, and biography in a way that still feels modern.
2 Audiobooks
Keats
by Sidney Colvin
About the author
Born in Norwood, London, on June 18, 1845, Sidney Colvin became a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, and later a fellow there. He went on to serve as Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge and then directed the Fitzwilliam Museum before moving to the British Museum, where he became Keeper of Prints and Drawings.
Colvin wrote on both art and literature, and reference works describe him as an important critic, scholar, and museum administrator. He is especially associated with Robert Louis Stevenson: the two became lifelong friends, and Colvin later edited Stevenson's letters and works, helping preserve and shape the author's reputation for later readers.
He was knighted in 1911 and died on May 11, 1927. Alongside his museum career, he also wrote notable biographical and critical studies, including work on John Keats, and is remembered as a figure who moved easily between the worlds of art history, literary criticism, and public culture.