Clodagh Finn: Amelia Curran, the Irish painter who immortalised poet Shelley

If Amelia Curran’s work was later forgotten, it was celebrated in her lifetime

Amelia Curran's memorial in St Isadore's Church in Rome by the famous Irish sculptor John Hogan. Picture: courtesy of Laura McKenna

There is something very poignant in discovering that the only surviving image of 19th-century artist Amelia Curran is a sketch — more a doodle really — drawn by her younger sister, Sarah, the writer, poet, and musician, in the fly pages of her music book.