Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

by (George) Herbert Watkins
albumen print, arched top, 29 April 1858
8 in. x 6 in. (203 mm x 151 mm)
Purchased, 1985
Primary Collection
NPG P301(20)

Sitter

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Novelist. Sitter associated with 80 portraits.

Artist

(George) Herbert Watkins (born 1828), Photographer. Artist associated with 250 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.

This Portrait

The most famous and best loved of all Victorian novelists, Dickens was a highly prolific writer. The year of this photograph, between the completion of Little Dorrit and the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities, was a momentous one for Dickens, for it was at this time he first became infatuated with the teenage actress, Ellen Ternan, and decided to separate from his wife. In the same period he began to give public readings from his works on a fully professional basis. Watkins’s photograph shows him with the paraphernalia of the lecturer.

Linked Publications

Rogers, Malcolm, Camera Portraits, 1989 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 October 1989 - 21 January 1990), p. 55
Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 178

Portrait Set

The Watkins album: photographs by Herbert Watkins, late 1850s