William Harrison Ainsworth
(1805-1882), NovelistEarly Victorian Portraits Catalogue Entry
Sitter in 10 portraits
Ainsworth was an author of popular historical romances. He initially studied law but left it for literature, publishing his first novel anonymously in 1826. His first success came with Rookwood (1834), featuring the highwayman Dick Turpin, which led many reviewers to hail him as the successor to Sir Walter Scott. Jack Sheppard (1839), the story of an eighteenth-century burglar, was equally successful, but its supposed glamorisation of crime proved controversial. From then on Ainsworth switched to historical novels based on places rather than criminals, including The Tower of London (1840),Old St. Paul's, A Tale of the Plague and the Fire (1841), and The Lancashire Witches (1849)
by Daniel Maclise
oil on canvas, circa 1834
NPG 3655
by Herbert Watkins
albumen print, late 1850s
NPG P301(15)
by Elliott & Fry
albumen carte-de-visite, 1860s
NPG Ax18231
by Hennah & Kent, for and published by William Henry Mason
albumen carte-de-visite, 1863
NPG x5151
by Southwell Brothers
albumen carte-de-visite, 1863
NPG Ax7510
by London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company
albumen carte-de-visite, 1870s
NPG x20
by Lock & Whitfield, published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington
woodburytype, published 1881
NPG Ax17628
by Lock & Whitfield
woodburytype on paper mount, 1881 or before
NPG x19
Various writers, historians and philanthropists
by and after Elliott & Fry
bromide print, 1890s
NPG Ax139908
by William Greatbach, after Richard James Lane
lithograph, circa 1825-1850
NPG D21947
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