Sir Henry Irving
1 portrait of Sir Henry Irving
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Sir Henry Irving
by Fradelle & Leach
albumen carte-de-visite, 1872
3 3/8 in. x 2 1/4 in. (87 mm x 57 mm) image size
Given by Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes, 1958
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax18154
Sitterback to top
- Sir Henry Irving (John Henry Brodribb) (1838-1905), Actor-manager. Sitter in 123 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Fradelle & Leach (active 1870-1872), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 5 portraits.
This portraitback to top
Shows Irving at the beginning of his London career after spending a decade in stock companies in the provinces. He made his professional debut at the Lyceum Theatre, Sunderland in 1856, fifteen years before making his name at the Lyceum Theatre, London.
Placesback to top
- Place made: United Kingdom: England, London (photographers' studio, 230 Regent Street, London)
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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