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Sir George Scharf

12 of 79 portraits of Sir George Scharf

Sir George Scharf, by Sir George Scharf, 1887 -NPG 4053(2) - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Sir George Scharf

by Sir George Scharf
Pencil on wove paper, 1887
14 1/8 in. x 10 in. (359 mm x 253 mm) overall
NPG 4053(2)

Inscriptionback to top

Inscr., signed and dated in pencil lower right-hand corner: ‘from 11 A.M. to 12.45 P.M. / GS. 19th June 1887.’;
and inscr. in pencil at right: ‘at XII glory. / Commandts [?] / at 11.55’.

This portraitback to top

NPG 4053(2) and NPG 4053(3) are both dated 19 June 1887 and inscribed with the hours Scharf worked on them. His diary entry for that Sunday:

Very hot indeed. Therm above summer heat. 77o. Heavy coughing after breakfast. […] At 11 o’clock I placed two looking glasses in the window of my bedroom & began to sketch myself in profile from opposite sides. I went on till 1 o’clock. I had only blunt lead pencils & had lost my knife. [1]

This is not such a finished head as NPG 4053(1), which was drawn a few days later. Both are part of the collection NPG 4053(1–19), ‘Drawings by Sir George Scharf, circa 1867–87’.

Carol Blackett-Ord



Footnotesback to top

1) Sir George Scharf Papers (Personal diary 1887, NPG7/3/1/44, NPG Archive).

Physical descriptionback to top

Bust and head three-quarters to left, looking to left, right hand holding pencil, drawing board in left hand.

Conservationback to top

Conserved, late 20th century (no date).

Provenanceback to top

Scharf Bequest, 1895.

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