Charles Dickens, his characters and the empty chair
1 portrait of Charles Dickens
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Charles Dickens, his characters and the empty chair
possibly after Harriet Anne Callow (née Smart), after John & Charles Watkins, and after Luke Fildes
albumen print, 1872
4 1/4 in. x 7 1/8 in. (108 mm x 182 mm) image size
Given by Terence Pepper, 2011
Photographs Collection
NPG x135439
Artistsback to top
- Harriet Anne Callow (née Smart) (1818-1883), Artist. Artist or producer associated with 2 portraits.
- Sir (Samuel) Luke Fildes (1843-1927), Illustrator and genre and portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 13 portraits, Sitter in 14 portraits.
- John & Charles Watkins (active 1863-1870), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 334 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This composite image demonstrates the popular repetition of the imagery used to commemorate Dickens. The Watkins brothers' sombre photograph from 1863 of the writer with half-closed eyes is reproduced, surrounded by vignettes of characters from his novels, along with an inset copy of Luke Fildes's drawing The Empty Chair. Fildes, commissioned by Dickens to illustrate his last, unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood, made this poignant record of the writer's study shortly after his fatal stroke. Sentimental images such as these chimed with the Victorians' sense of loss for a man many regarded as 'a personal friend' and for the characters he left unwritten.
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- Creative Connections 2015: Camden Radical Characters (1 July 2015 - 11 October 2015)
- Charles Dickens: Life and Legacy (24 October 2011 - 22 April 2012)
Events of 1872back to top
Current affairs
The (Secret) Ballot Act is passed. By ending open voting in local and general elections, the act reduced the scope for intimidation at hustings, an important step towards democracy. Previously, voters had to mount a platform and announce their choice of candidate to a recording officer, so although most working men had already been enfranchised, employers were able to punish workers who did not vote for their preferred candidate.Art and science
George Eliot's novel Middlemarch is published. Exploring the impact of the 1832 Reform Act on provincial England, and charting the changes in class, politics, art and science in the nineteenth-century, Eliot's novel is widely perceived to be one of the best examples of the English realist novel.International
The Metaphysical Club is formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by William James (brother of author Henry James), Oliver Wendel Holmes Jr, and Charles Sanders Peirce. The group begins to develop the American philosophy of pragmatism, which held that ideas were simply mental constructs that people formed to help them cope with the world, but which did not exist in an ideal realm.Comments back to top
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