Sir George Scharf and friends

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Sir George Scharf and friends

by Sir George Scharf
lithograph, 1873
11 1/4 in. x 10 1/2 in. (286 mm x 267 mm) paper size
Transferred from Sir George Scharf
Reference Collection
NPG D6712

Sittersback to top

Artistback to top

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

This portraitback to top

Augustus Wollaston Franks is depicted here second from left, with Scharf (far right) and two others. Scharf sketched this portrait by gaslight on a lithographic stone in his Library at Ashley Place, as a present to send to an absent acquaintance. Franks was the Keeper of British & Mediaeval antiquities and Ethnography at the British Museum and a long-term friend, frequently visiting Scharf at home or at the Gallery, and vice versa. They would confer on aspects of museum practice and matters of scholarship, Scharf's diaries hinting at a relationship of informal professional exchange.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG D6713: Sir George Scharf and friends (from same plate)
  • NPG D6714: Sir George Scharf and friends (from same plate)
  • NPG D6715: Sir George Scharf and friends (from same plate)
  • NPG D6716: Sir George Scharf and friends (from same plate)
  • NPG D6717: Sir George Scharf and friends (from same plate)

Placesback to top

Events of 1873back to top

Current affairs

The public entertainment centre Alexandra Palace, designed by architect Owen Jones (associated with the Crystal Palace) and built between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in North London, burns down within sixteen days of opening. Named after Alexandra of Denmark, married to Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, the palace was quickly rebuilt, and has since been used as a transmission centre for the BBC, and as a musical entertainment venue.

Art and science

Edith Coleridge edits her late mother Sara Coleridge's Memoir and Letters. Sara, the daughter of the poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was an author, translator and editor of her father's works.

International

Inspired by prospectors' demands for better quality trousers during the 1850s Gold Rush, Levi Strauss develops a trouser made with twilled cotton cloth from France called 'serge de Nimes', later known as denim. This year, he patents the process of putting rivets in the trousers for strength, introducing 'blue jeans' to the world.

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