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Dame Christabel Pankhurst

2 of 17 portraits of Dame Christabel Pankhurst

© estate of Richard George Mathews / National Portrait Gallery, London

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Dame Christabel Pankhurst

by Richard George Mathews
charcoal and chalk, 1908
16 3/8 in. x 11 3/4 in. (417 mm x 298 mm)
Purchased, 2011
Primary Collection
NPG 6904

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In 1908, when this portrait was made, Christabel Pankhurst is considered to have been at her most powerful as an accomplished orator, attracting a growing group of devoted followers amongst women of all classes as well as many male supporters. The accompanying text in the Bystander, echoing the sentiments of hero-worship often inspired by Christabel Pankhurst, referred to her popularity and prettiness. It proclaimed her a 'Boadicea of Politics', who 'chiefly fascinates by a clever combination in one small body of all the wiles of woman with some of the mind of man.'


For information on the original purpose of the portrait and on its acquisition by the National Portrait Gallery, see Chasing the suffragettes: A Boadicea of Politics.

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Current affairs

Henry Asquith replaces Henry Campbell-Bannerman as Liberal leader and Prime Minister, with David Lloyd George taking control of the Exchequer. Asquith and Lloyd George embark on a bold programme of social reform, laying the foundations of the Welfare State, introducing government pensions this year and later a system of National Insurance.
The first aeroplane for the British army is built by the American, Samuel Cody.

Art and science

E.M. Forster's novel A Room with a View is published, following the experiences of a young woman, Lucy Honeychurch, in the repressed culture of Edwardian England.
The French art critic Louis Vauxcelles first uses the term 'cubism' to refer to a landscape painting by Georges Braque.

International

King Carlos of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luis Filipe, are killed by assassins from the Republican trying to provoke a revolution. Carlos I, unpopular because of his extravagant lifestyle and extramarital affairs, was succeeded by his younger son, Manuel, the last monarch of the Braganza dynasty.
Following the death of the Guangxu Emperor in China, his two year old nephew replaces him, becoming the the last Manchu emperor of China.

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