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Ira Aldridge as Aaron in 'Titus Andronicus'

4 of 5 portraits by William Paine

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Ira Aldridge as Aaron in 'Titus Andronicus'

published by John Tallis & Company, after William Paine
stipple and line engraving, published circa 1850
10 3/4 in. x 7 1/8 in. (274 mm x 182 mm) paper size
Reference Collection
NPG D17967

Sitterback to top

Artistsback to top

  • William Paine (active 1849-1858), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 5 portraits.
  • John Tallis & Company, Publishers. Artist or producer associated with 9 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Aldridge was particularly famed for his Shakespearean roles such as Aaron. He is here depicted during a performance at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton in 1852.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG D17895: Ira Aldridge as Mungo in 'The Padlock' (mounted together)

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Schama, Simon, The Face of Britain: The Nation Through its Portraits, 2015-09-15, p. 462

Placesback to top

Events of 1850back to top

Current affairs

Cardinal Wiseman, a Catholic priest who had exerted a strong influence on the Oxford movement, is made a Cardinal and leader of the Catholic church in England, thus restoring Roman Catholic hierarchy in England.

Art and science

Death of poet laureate William Wordsworth; his great autobiographical poem The Prelude is published posthumously, famously charting the growth of the poet's mind.
Tennyson's In Memoriam is also published. A poignant record of his grief over the death of his friend Arthur Hallam, the poem also movingly questions the strength of faith in an increasingly scientific age.

International

Up to 50,000 pioneers travel west in wagons on the Oregon trail in the United States, one of the main overland migration routes across the continent. Spanning over half the continent, the trail led 2,170 miles through territories and land which would later become six US states, including Kansas, Wyoming and Oregon, helping the US to implement its goal of Manifest Destiny - building a nation spanning the North American continent.

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