William Makepeace Thackeray

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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William Makepeace Thackeray

by Sir Edwin Landseer
pen and ink and wash, 1857
4 5/8 in. x 3 7/8 in. (117 mm x 98 mm)
Purchased, 1955
Primary Collection
NPG 3925

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873), Painter. Artist or producer associated with 56 portraits, Sitter in 22 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This late drawing of the novelist W M Thackeray working by candlelight is a relatively rare example of Landseer producing caricatures of members of his literary circle rather than his aristocratic friends. Thackeray had regularly satirised Landseer's exhibits at the Royal Academy but they became friends in later years. Not long after this drawing, Landseer contributed an illustration of a black sheep for Thackeray's novel Lovel the Widower, published in the Cornhill Magazine, 1860.

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Events of 1857back to top

Current affairs

Palmerston passes the Matrimonial Causes Act in the face of parliamentary opposition. The act establishes divorce courts, although women, unlike men, are not allowed to sue for divorce on the grounds of adultery.
The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition is held, a follow-up to the Great Exhibition of 1851, although highlighting Britain's private art collections rather than industry and technology. More than 1.3 million people visit the event.

Art and science

Elizabeth Gaskell publishes The Life of Charlotte Brontë, a year after the author's death. The controversial biography consolidates the myth of the Brontë sisters as isolated geniuses living in remote Yorkshire.
Illustrator George Scharf becomes the first Secretary of the National Portrait Gallery, overseeing the collection's growth and its several moves around London before a permanent home is established in 1896, the year after Scharf's death.

International

The Indian Revolt was a significant rebellion against the rule of the East Indian Company and a culmination of decades of discontent about British rule. After a year of horrific violence on both sides, the revolt was suppressed. It led to a more involved role by the British government in India, taking over responsibility from the East India Company.

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