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Sir George Scharf

1 of 79 portraits of Sir George Scharf

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Sir George Scharf

by William Edward Kilburn
daguerreotype, circa 1847
3 1/8 in. x 2 3/8 in. (78 mm x 59 mm)
Acquired from the estate of Sir George Scharf via Algernon Graves
Primary Collection
NPG P859

Sitterback to top

  • Sir George Scharf (1820-1895), Artist and art historian; first Director and later trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. Sitter in 79 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 588 portraits.

Artistback to top

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Rogers, Malcolm, Camera Portraits, 1989 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 October 1989 - 21 January 1990), p. 2
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 550

Events of 1847back to top

Current affairs

The 10 Hours Factory Act passed, regulating working hours for women and children under the age of eighteen to a maximum of ten hours a day.
The Communist League is founded in London, and drew up a set of rules and aims, including overthrowing the bourgeoisie and empowering the Proleteriat, and ending class division, forming the basis of Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto (1848).}
Death and emigration resulting from starvation, plague and disease during worst year of the Great Famine in Ireland, known as Black 47.

Art and science

A good year for novels: Emily Bronte's passionate, rebellious and gothic Wuthering Heightsis published, followed shortly by her sister Charlotte's 'Jane Eyre, a story of a governess's struggle for liberty from social and gender constrictions. Drawing on a similar vein of revolution and rebellious women, William Thackeray's satirical novel Vanity Fair is serialised.

International


The Don Pacifico affair sparks an international incident, when the Jewish trader's business was burned in an anti-semitic attack in Athens. When the Greek government refused to compensate him, Gibraltar-born Pacifico appealed to the British government. Foreign Minister Palmerston sent a squadron into the Aegean in 1850 to seize goods of the equivalent value, leading to strained relations with Turkey and Russia, and heated debates in Parliament.

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