Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Sir George Scharf (1820-1895), Artist and art historian; first Director and later trustee of the National Portrait Gallery

Self-portraits
By other artists
Photographs

Self-portraitsback to top


1844
Pencil sketch, inscr. ‘Interview with the Pasha of Rhodes’, dated 19 Mar. 1844, seated, profile to left, at right of group; Sir George Scharf Papers (Travels with Sir Charles Fellows sketchbook: Lycia and Xanthus, NPG7/3/4/1/16, NPG Archive). Repr. Slatter c.1994, p.310.

1864
Pen and ink caricature drawing, inscr. ‘The Events of 1864’, dated 16 Dec. 1864, bust to left sketching, top left of group; Kent County Record Office, Maidstone, Scharf Album, Chevening Coll.

1868
Pencil sketch, dated 13 Feb. [1868], half-length, half-profile to right; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 80, p.63, NPG7/3/4/2/91, NPG Archive). Almost certainly a self-portrait.

1869
Pen and ink caricature drawing; see NPG 5344.

1872
Watercolour drawings; see NPG 3863, NPG 3864 and NPG 3865.

Pencil sketch, dated 12 Aug. 1872 [Chevening], head-and-shoulders, full-face; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 88, p.45r, NPG7/3/4/2/99, NPG Archive).

1873
Lithograph, inscr. (in reverse) ‘To J.L. Pattison. / in remembrance of 11th February. With best wishes from the above / An evening at 8 Ashley Place. London / 19th January 1873’, head-and-shoulders to left, at right of four figures incl. Jacob Luard Pattisson; copies NPG D6712, NPG D6713, NPG D6714, NPG D6715, NPG D6716, NPG D6717. For refs to this print in Scharf’s diary for 19 Jan. and 11 Feb. 1873, see Sir George Scharf Papers (Personal diary 1873, NPG7/3/1/30, NPG Archive).

?late 1870s
Watercolour drawing; see NPG 4053(5).

1882
Pencil caricature sketch, inscr. ‘Ettington 9 September 1882’, at right of three-verse ditty (‘G.-S.- is my name …’), half-length, full-face, standing on church tower, arms raised; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 104, p.31v, NPG7/3/4/2/119, NPG Archive).

1885
Pencil sketch of portrait by Walter William Ouless (see below, ‘By other artists, 1885’), inscr. ‘sketched from my portrait on the easel in Ouless’s studio. 12 Bryanston Square / 24 January 1885’; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 111, p.45, NPG7/3/4/2/126, NPG Archive).

1887
Two pencil sketches on sketchbook page dated 13th Feb. 1887:
(a) head, three-quarters to right;
(b) head-and-shoulders, three-quarters to left, sketching;
Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 114, p.21, NPG7/3/4/2/129, NPG Archive).

Pencil drawings; see NPG 4053(1) and NPG 4053(3).

1888
Pencil sketch, dated 9 July 1888 and inscr. ‘at 8oclock on a dull summer evening’, head-and-shoulders, full-face; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 116, p.72, NPG7/3/4/2/131, NPG Archive).

Pencil sketch, undated but on reverse dated 7 Sept. 1888 (see below, ‘By other artists, 1888’), head-and-shoulders, full-face; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 117, p.70v, NPG7/3/4/2/132, NPG Archive).

?late 1880s
Watercolour drawing; see NPG 4053(4).

1891
Pencil sketch, inscr. ‘24 Sept. 1891’, half-length, full-face; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 125, p.45, NPG7/3/4/2/140, NPG Archive).


Undated self-portraits
Pencil sketch, inscr. “an Executor in grief”, two half-length figures, heads bowed, writing; NPG Archive, NPG D92.

Drawing, half-length to left, seated reading; untraced. Tracing, inscr. ‘view of my Library / 8 Ashley Place / Given to Ducksey Hardinge, now the Honble Mrs Field on / her marriage’; NPG Archive, NPG D6614. Repr. Lasdun 1981, p.103.


By other artistsback to top


early 1820s
Pencil sketch by George Scharf sen., inscr. ‘Myself. [Mrs S?] and George going to Peckham’, whole-length as a small child; BM, London, 1900,0725.121.17.

Pencil sketch by George Scharf sen., inscr. ‘at Dulwich, myself, Mrs. S. George & Henry’, whole-length as a small child; BM, London, 1900,0725.121.25.

1830
Watercolour drawing by George Scharf sen., whole-length, profile to left, with mother Elizabeth Scharf and brother Henry; BM, London, 1900,0725.5. Exh. RA 1830 (801, ‘Children at their lessons’).

later 1830s
Chalk drawing by William Carpenter jun., head only, full-face with spectacles, second from left of four heads of students at Smith’s Anatomical School, Windmill St; BM, London, 1900,0725.182.

1843
Drawing by Charles Fellows, [1] Oct.–Nov. 1843, drawing the Box Tomb, Xanthus; Wellcome L., London, MS.6959. Repr. Slatter c.1994, p.265. There are probably more sketches of Scharf in the Wellcome Fellows/Scharf sketchbook: see also Slatter c.1994, p.257.

1850
Pencil sketch by George Scharf sen., half-length, standing with pointer at table delivering a lecture at Hampstead Conversation Soc.; BM, London, 1862,0614.187.

1852
Pencil drawing by George Scharf sen., inscr. ‘Lecture on the Antiquitis / of Nineveh / given by g Scharf / junr / at the Streatham Hill Institution 8 & 22 Jany 1852’, half-length to left, standing with pointer; BM, London, 1862,0614.178.

Pencil sketch by George Scharf sen., inscr. ‘George’s / Lecture at the Governisses / College, Harley St. / 5 June 1852. gs.’, half-length to left, standing with pointer; BM, London, 1862,0614.189.

1859
Brush drawing in grey wash with watercolour by George Scharf sen., whole-length, standing to right, almost profile, wearing Court dress; BM, London, 1900,0725.21. Repr. Slatter c.1994, p.12; ref. Sir George Scharf Papers (Personal diary 1859, NPG7/3/1/16, NPG Archive, see entries for 17 and 23 February).

c.1850s
Pencil sketch by George Scharf sen., inscr. ‘Hackney Assembly Rooms, when g Scharf junr / lectured there’, whole-length, standing on stage with pointer; BM, London, 1862,0614.177.

mid–late 1860s
Oil on canvas, 762 x 635mm, by unidentified artist, half-length, head slightly to right, steel-rimmed spectacles; untraced; coll. Charles Sewell, Willesden, NW10, 1920. Photographs NPG SB (Scharf) and Description of Portraits, vol.xiv, no.47, NPG 87/14, NPG Archive. Possibly the only solo painting Scharf sat for besides that by Ouless (see below, 1885’).

1869
Pencil caricature drawing by George, Marquess of Blandford (later 8th Duke of Marlborough), inscr. ‘Blenheim Park 18 September 1869 / Lord Blandford’s portrait of GS.’, whole-length to left, wearing dark glasses and a hat and holding an umbrella; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 83, p.44v, NPG7/3/4/2/94, NPG Archive).

1870
Chalk drawing by A. S. Langdon; see NPG 4583.

1871
Oil on ?canvas by A. S. Langdon, life-size; untraced (pose details not known). [2]

1882
Pencil drawing by Charles Stewart Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge, head-and-shoulders, profile to left, inscr. ‘South Park 25th September 1882’; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 104, p.45v, NPG7/3/4/2/119, NPG Archive).

Pencil sketches by Charles Stewart Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge:
(a) inscr. ‘Before Eno’ (p.48), whole-length, seated to left, head on hand;
(b) inscr. ‘AFTER ENO’ (p.49), whole-length, rear view, dancing;
Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 104, pp.48–9, NPG7/3/4/2/119, NPG Archive).

1883
Pencil sketch by Charles Stewart Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge, inscr. ‘Garden Party. / South Park. 22nd August 1883 our artist’, whole-length, rear view, sketching; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 107, p.70v, NPG7/3/4/2/122, NPG Archive).

1885
Oil on canvas by Walter William Ouless; see NPG 985.
The prime portrait of Scharf when Director of the NPG.
Copies or studies after Ouless made at the NPG by A. Harold Brown, 1903; Mabel B. Messer, 1907; and M. Rainer, 1920. Ref. Register of applications to copy portraits, NPG 77/5.

1886
Pen & ink sketch by Charles Stewart Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge, on a letter from Hardinge to Scharf dated 4 Sept. 1886, 'I hope Moses & Co. are doing nicely - you ought to go out on a boat at a bob an hour', half-length, seen from behind seated in the stern of a rowing boat, wearing hat; Sir George Scharf Papers (NPG7/1/1/4/21, NPG Archive).

1887
Pencil sketch by Charles Stewart Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge, inscr. ‘G Scharf chez lui / South Park / NB on the table is a bottle of Rubinati [a digestif]’, dated 20 Nov. 1887, whole-length, seated on couch; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 116, p.1, NPG7/3/4/2/131, NPG Archive).

1888
Pencil sketch, inscr. ‘G.S. by F.S., Boughton. 7. Sept. ’88 / The two drew each other at 10 foot distance with Major S. in the room & his father / drawn by Francis Scott eldest s of Lord Walter S. 3rd s of 5th D who lived at B’, half-length with sketchbook; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 117, p.70r, NPG7/3/4/2/132, NPG Archive).

c.1888–9
Pencil sketch by Charles Stewart Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge, inscr. ‘Dream of the future’, seated in front of fire with smoke-wreathed dreams of a presentation to Queen Victoria in 1895, and of the Houses of Parliament in 1900; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 118, p.2, NPG7/3/4/2/133, NPG Archive).

1889
Oil on canvas by Henry Jamyn Brooks: see NPG 1833.

1890
Sketch by Milton Prior, signed 'M.P', whole-length to right wearing long coat and spectacles, in party receiving Queen Victoria on her visit to the New Gallery, 4 Mar. 1890, standing between H. A. Grueber and H. Lee-Dillon; untraced. Repr. as full-page engr. by Paul Hermann Naumann, ILN, 8 Mar. 1890, p.296 (captioned ‘The Queen's Visit to the Tudor Exhibition’).

Pencil sketch, by Charles Stewart Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge, inscr. ‘12 April 1890’ (by Scharf) and 'Little Red haired man', whole-length, standing to left with hand in pocket, next to another figure; Sir George Scharf Papers (Sketchbook 121, p.3, NPG7/3/4/2/136, NPG Archive).

Photographsback to top


c.1847
Daguerreotype photograph by William Edward Kilburn; see NPG P859.
The prime portrait of Scharf as a young man.

1860
Albumen cartes-de-visite by William Southwell, in studio, two known poses; ref. Sir George Scharf Papers (Personal diary 1859, NPG7/3/1/16, NPG Archive, see entr7 for 14 September):
(a) whole-length, seated to left at table, reading; prints NPG Ax29972 and NPG Ax29973.
(b) whole-length, standing to left, holding top hat in left hand; prints NPG Ax29974 and NPG Ax29975.

1861
Albumen carte-de-visite by Maull & Polyblank, dated by Scharf 31 Aug. 1861, whole-length to left, standing against studio pillar, right arm on balustrade; prints NPG Ax29971 and NPG Ax30346.

Albumen print, arched top, by Maull & Polyblank, dated by Scharf 25 Oct. 1861, three-quarter-length, seated to left, open sketchbook on table; colls NPG x22529 (exh. Sir George Scharf, NPG, London, 2006); and Athenaeum Club, London, Ports.M.II11.

1863
Albumen cartes-de-visite by George Barker,[3] in the garden of 17 Wellington Terrace, St John’s Wood, dated by Scharf 17 June 1863, two known poses:
(a) whole-length, standing to left, left hand on hip and right hand on chairback, wearing spectacles; prints NPG Ax30343 and NPG Ax30344.
(b) same pose, head turned to right; NPG Ax30345.

Albumen carte-de-visite by Hon. Edward Stanhope, dated by Scharf 31 Aug. 1863, whole-length, standing, right arm on chairback, wearing top hat, outdoors; NPG Ax30342.

Albumen prints by unidentified photographer in studio, three known poses:
(a) inscr. by Scharf ‘Received, Sept.1 1863’, whole-length, standing, leaning on chairback, head lowered to right; NPG Ax29981.[4]
(b) dated by Scharf as (a) above, whole-length, full-face slightly to right, standing;NPG Ax29980.
(c) whole-length, profile to right, seated with newspaper; prints NPG Ax29976 and NPG Ax29977.

1864
Albumen cartes-de-visite by Southwell Brothers, dated by Scharf 1 Aug. 1864, three known poses:
(a) whole-length, full-face, head on right hand, seated; NPG Ax29978.
(b) whole-length, standing, slightly to left, hand on chairback; prints NPG Ax29979 and NPG Ax29982 (retouched).
(c) whole-length, standing between chair and table; NPG Ax29984.

1866
Albumen cartes-de-visite by Ernest Edwards, two known poses:
(a) three-quarter-length, standing to left, holding sketchbook in left hand and in right hand his watercolour sketch of the portrait of Richard II at Westminster Abbey;[5] prints NPG Ax31823, NPG Ax19851, NPG Ax30341 and NPG Ax29983 (used by Scharf for his admission ticket to the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1867). Repr. Reeve & Walford 1863–7, vol.5, Feb. 1867, no.44, p.49. Scharf ordered 15 copies (see NPG Ax19851).
(b) three-quarter-length, facing front, seated to right with legs crossed, right arm holding notebook and pencil and left arm resting on framed painting of mother and child; prints colls NPG Ax29985; and The Rob Dickins Coll., Watts G., Compton, COMWG2008.2309. Repr. Reeve & Walford 1867, vol.6, p.49; Maas 1984, p.178, no.332.
A good portrait of Scharf when Secretary of the NPG.

Albumen cartes-de-visite by Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon), Paris, dated by Scharf 21 Aug. 1867, three known poses:
(a) three-quarter-length, standing, with Murray’s Handbook to Paris under right arm and binoculars over shoulder; NPG Ax29990. Repr. Rogers 1989, p.11.
(b) whole-length, seated on chair, drawing in sketchbook, hat on (studio) grass; NPG Ax29986.
(c) same pose as (b), but wearing hat; NPG Ax29987. Repr. Rogers 1989, p.11.

1868
Albumen cartes-de-visite by Ernest Edwards, dated by Scharf 19 June 1868, two known poses:
(a) bust slightly to right, head turned to left, no spectacles; NPG Ax29988.
(b) bust to left, head almost profile to left, spectacles; NPG Ax29989.

1868
Cabinet card by unidentified photographer, dressed in Freemason's costume (pose not known); untraced. [6]

1876
Albumen print (oval) on cabinet card by unidentified photographer (?Cecil William Woods), dated by Scharf 29 Nov. 1876, three-quarter-length, seated to right, reading book, bearded;[7] prints NPG x4982, NPG x22532, NPG x22533, NPG x22534, NPG x22535, NPG x22536, NPG x22537, NPG x22538, NPG x22539 and NPG x1368. Repr. (as wood-engr.) Review of Reviews 1895, p.467.

c.1880
Photographs by unidentified photographer, with NPG administrative staff, South Kensington, two known poses:
(a) whole-length, seated, looking three-quarters to left, surrounded by seven members of staff; NPG Archive, NPGBY22/1 (one print). Exh. Sir George Scharf, 1820-1895, NPG, London, 2006.
(b) same pose as (a), profile to left, writing; NPG Archive, NPG22/1/1 (one print).

1885
Albumen cabinet portraits by Alexander Bassano, 5 June 1885, two known poses:[8]
(a) three-quarter-length, head turned to viewer, standing to right, holding sketchbook and pencil; NPG x22530.
(b) three-quarter-length, head to right, seated to right, holding sketchbook and pencil; NPG x22531.

Photographs by Wood & Co., Brompton Rd, display of NPG collection at South Kensington, Aug.–Sept. 1885, two known poses:
(a) whole-length to left, rear view, standing in front of portrait of Queen Victoria (NPG 708, Abercromby after von Angeli); NPG Archive, NPG22/2/1 (one print) and NPGBY22/2 (two prints).
(b) whole-length to right, seated against wall at left, wearing top hat; NPG Archive, NPGBY22/2/1 (one print) and NPGBY22/2 (two prints). Repr. Simon 1996, p.148; Saumarez Smith 1997, p.8; and Hulme, Buchanan & Powell 2000, p.37.

1886
Albumen cabinet portrait by J.C. Stodart, Margate, two known poses: [9]
(a) three-quarter-length, seated to left, head on hand, looking down at sketchbook, Freeman O’Donoghue standing at left; NPG x22543. Exh. Sir George Scharf, 1820-1895, NPG, London, 2006.
(b) three-quarter-length, seated to right (with ?F. O’Donoghue); NPG Ax13958 (cropped).

1889
Albumen print (oval) on cabinet card by J. Fisher, 90 Golborne Road, N. Kensington, dated by Scharf 6 Feb. 1889, whole-length, standing to right in Henry Jamyn Brooks’s studio, 32 Vereker Rd, the painting Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition, 1888 (see above, ‘By other artists, c.1888–9’) on easel in background; prints NPG x22540, NPG x22541, NPG x22542 and NPG Ax13957 (half-length detail). See Scharf NPG 1833 for details of sitting to Fisher.

publ. 1895
Wood-engraving by ‘PN’ after photograph by J. Fisher, head-and-shoulders to right; repr. ILN, 27 Apr. 1895, p.502 (obits). Probably connected with the 1889 sitting to J. Fisher (see above).


Footnotes
1) Drawing possibly by Scharf himself.
2) This portrait is known to have existed from a number of entries in Scharf's diary referring to sittings between April and the end of May 1871, for example: ‘Langdon began a portrait of me, life size, in oil colours. His price for the finished work is three pounds. I sat from 10.30 to 12.30 in my Library. Advanced one half of the price at first sitting - £1.10' (Sir George Scharf Papers, Personal diary 1863, NPG7/3/1/20, NPG Archive).
3) For biographical notice on George Barker (1818–83), picture restorer and artist, see NPG website for directory of ‘British Picture Framers’.
4) No note in Scharf diary on 1 Sept. 1863 but on 16 Sept. he paid 5s.3d. for ‘Photographs’; Sir George Scharf Papers (Personal diary 1863, NPG7/3/1/20, NPG Archive).
5) For Scharf’s watercolour, dated 8 Nov. 1866, see Scharf Library XXIX.C.I, ‘Printed papers and Pamphlets’, NPG Archive. See also lithograph by Day & Son Ltd. after Scharf, ‘The Westminster Portrait of King Richard II’, photo NPG AB (Scharf).
6) This image is known from an entry in Scharf's personal diary (23 Apr. 1874): 'Distributing my remaining Cabinet photos of Self in Masonic Garb' (NPG7/3/1/31, NPG Archive).
7) ‘I hope, when I shall once come again to London, to find you in your former health, though much altered by the large beard.’ Letter from A. Michaelis to G. Scharf, 1 July 1876, NPG Archive. Scharf contracted scarlet fever in Jan. 1876, and sometime during that year his long whiskers were replaced by a bushy white beard.
8) ‘Cab to Bassano 1s. His studio was intensely hot and the long way up stairs tried me severely’; Sir George Scharf Papers (Personal diary 1885, NPG7/3/1/42, NPG Archive). For sketches made while sitting to Bassano, see also Sketchbook 108, pp.64 and 65r, NPG7/3/4/2/123, NPG Archive.
9) Scharf and O’Donoghue stayed in Margate, 22–26 July 1886; see Sir George Scharf Papers (Personal diary 1886, NPG7/3/1/43, NPG Archive). Scharf noted ‘Donny joined me. We walked down to the photographers & afterwards along the heights to east of Cliftonville’ (Saturday, 24 July); and ‘Proof specimens of our photographs arrived’ (Sunday, 25 July).

Carol Blackett-Ord