Yareah Magazine

The poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, was the rock star of his day, with adoring fans and great interest in every detail of his life, especially his affairs and scandals. He still fascinates us today.

When I went to England in June 2005, I looked everywhere for a similar portrait of Byron, especially when we visited his estate, Newstead Abbey, but I never saw anything like it. So I am leaving it up to you. I have reversed some well-known Byron portraits and put them in black and white, for comparison.

Is my sketch Lord Byron?

This is what I imagine. A young Regency miss was infatuated with Lord Byron. Perhaps she even glimpsed him in Mayfair, at a ball or at the theatre. She and her girlfriends sighed over his Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bought engravings of his portrait at the local print shop. She did what I did when I was a teenager. She drew her own picture of Byron, putting him in exotic dress, like she would have imagined Childe Harold to wear.

Of course, when I was a teenager I drew Beatle Paul McCartney’s portrait. I still have it somewhere, near my photo of William Shatner as Captain Kirk.

Weigh in here with your opinions. Do I have a portrait of Byron?
Confess. Who would you have drawn in those tender years of infatuation?