Fanny Keats

[korenbloem]

Friend of mine who actually is a descendant from George Keats
told me that a straight descendant from Fanny Keats is at present part of the Spanish delegation to the UN inNYC.
She is married to a Spanish nobleman.

[Saturn]

[korenbloem]

yes, it is amazing and tantalizing but he is just not that interested in his ancestry.
I keep working at him though,trying to get him to post something foru.m

[Malia]

yes, it is amazing and tantalizing but he is just not that interested in his ancestry.
I keep working at him though,trying to get him to post something foru.m

You know, a long time ago--over 10 years ago, I read a message written on a John Keats website's guestbook from a girl who is direct descendent of George Keats, living in Kentucky. She said that George Keats was her great, great, (great?) grandfather but didn't really care that she was related to one of the greatest of the English poets. It just wasn't a "big deal" to her. I remember sitting in the Whitman college computer lab reading that message and thinking, "Are you for *real*? I'd kill to have that kind of herritage." Too bad Keats's family didn't produce any nerdy English majors--we'd be crowing about our literary connection til the cows came home

[dks]

[Saturn]

How about an ancestry thread?

Have you tried to trace back your family tree?

Where did it lead you?

Did you find anything surprising/interesting/shocking in your family's past?

[Raphael]

How interesting that Fanny thought that the minature by Joseph Severn was a good likeness- from what I've read most biographers don't seem to think it is. It's interesting how opinion differs regaring the various portraits of him. Severn thought his charcoal drawing the best one and I can see his point as there is great similarity to the life mask. What fascinates me is how different his death mask is to all the portraits and indeed the life mask- I can see no resemblence of the death mask to any of his portraits.
I do like the minature tho- if it is truly like him- then he had beautiful skin and eyes! Oh and of course lovely curly auburn hair.I am going to print it out and frame it.
It's a shame that Fanny B didn't give a comment on his portraits- that would have been interesting to know what she thought the best likeness was.

[paradinas]

Fanny K in her 40s:

I've never seen this painting of Fanny in her 40s, I wonder who has it now. I have an identical framed picture at home of Fanny's daughter Rosa Llanos Keats, both were painted by her son Juan Llanos Keats.

[paradinas]

Interesting stuff Credo - thanks for posting.

Does anyone else think that Valentin Llanos was a bit creepy?

I mean to like a poets work is one thing but to go after his sister and to marry her.

Perhaps I'm being overly cynical here and I'm sure Fanny and Valentin genuinely loved each other but it is a bit strange.

Possibly, but they were married for 59 years and had 6 children.

[paradinas]

I wonder if anyone has dug up old photographs or daguerrotypes of Keats's descendants? Wouldn't that be awesome to see??

Here's a photo of Fanny Keats' son Juan Llanos Keats.

[paradinas]

I am really interested in reading this book. I came across Valentin Llanos' name in another biography on Keats and I am extremely interested in knowing more about him. His last name bears a very striking resemblance to my own... I'd very much like to know what part of Spain he was born in.

He was born in Valladolid on 16th December 1795, son of Luis Llanos Lajo & Maria Ana Gutierrez Morales.

Here is a copy of Severn's miniature of Keats painted by Valentin himself:

[paradinas]

Friend of mine who actually is a descendant from George Keats
told me that a straight descendant from Fanny Keats is at present part of the Spanish delegation to the UN inNYC.
She is married to a Spanish nobleman.

don't know who that is.. Fanny Keats is my great great great grandmother.

Here's an original charcoal sketch i have of her:



I've got lots of other information and pictures of her descendents if anyone's interested. There are 6 English descendents of Fanny (one of her her great great grandsons moved back here from Spain in 1959)

[CasaMagni]

Welcome and thanks for those very interesting images. Things have been quiet on this forum for a while but we're always interested in valuable contributions like yours. I've been reading Marie Adami's 1937 biography of Fanny Keats this year and a well-written and informative account it is too. Also, Gerald Griffin, to whom we are indebted for the information that Valentin Llanos met Keats 3 days before the end (although some scholars have cast doubt on the '3 days' claim), was from my home city of Limerick in Ireland. Looking forward to any more tasty morsels of Keatsiana you may have.

[paradinas]

Thanks for the welcome, yes it seems very quiet, where has everyone migrated to, are there facebook groups?

I also read Adami's biography of Fanny this year, always interesting to read about your ancestors. Also very interesting to hear about Elena Brockmann's character (whose photo is at the end of the book) because her paintings (& self portraits) were around the house as I grew up. She was quite a prestigious and groundbreaking historical painter (not many women were accepted in art in those days), as was her uncle Juan (a historical painter that is).

Here's portraits of two more of Fanny's children, Luis and Isabel (who's my great great grandmother).

[paradinas]

And for those who've read the book, here's a painting (by Juan Llanos, Keats nephew) of the Brockmann apartment 5 Calle de Lista (mentioned at the end of Adami's book) circa 1890, the year after Fanny's death. It features 3 of her children and her grandchildren. It matches well her description in the book.

L-R Isabel Brockmann Llanos, Regina Brockmann Llanos, Maragarita Brockmann Llanos, Juan Llanos Keats (back to viewer) and Rosa Llanos Keats (standing), unknown (older woman), Enrique Brockmann Llanos, Elena Brockmann, Isabel Llanos Keats (on sofa), Ernesto Brockmann Llanos (by mantelpiece).



Interestingly it features Juan's painting the Immaculate Conception on the wall, now at the Guildhall art gallery in London https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-immaculate-conception-52106

And we've still got the mirrors and venus callipyge statue.