Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons

by George Frederic Watts
oil on canvas, 1856-1857
24 in. x 19 7/8 in. (610 mm x 505 mm)
Given by George Frederic Watts, 1883
Primary Collection
NPG 685

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • George Frederic Watts (1817-1904), Painter and sculptor; Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. Artist or producer associated with 93 portraits, Sitter in 43 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This portrait was painted in Constantinople. Watts visited the city in the winter of 1856-7 to secure a permit in connection with an archaeological expedition and, while there, made the acquaintance of Lyons.

Linked publicationsback to top

Placesback to top

  • Place made: Turkey (Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey)

Events of 1856back to top

Current affairs

Queen Victoria introduces the Victoria cross, an award for British soldiers who displayed exceptional valour in battle. Each medal was produced from Russian guns captured in the British war. In 2006, Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry became the first living recipient of the Victoria Cross since 1965, for his actions in the Iraq war.

Art and science

The National Portrait Gallery is founded by Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl of Stanhope, Thomas Babington Macaulay, and Thomas Carlyle, all biographers and historians. Historical rather than artistic in focus, the Gallery's aim was to collect original portraits of outstanding figures from British history, notably from politics, the arts, literature and science.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning publishes her epic and autobiographical poem Aurora Leigh.

International

The Treaty of Paris ends the Crimean war. Russia concedes to the Anglo-French-Austrian Four Points of August 1854 including the guarantee of Ottoman sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia also agreed to a demilitarisation of the land islands in the Baltics, a term which lasted until the outbreak of the First World War.
Britain launches the second Opium war against China.

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