George Payne; Henry John Rous

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© National Portrait Gallery, London

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George Payne; Henry John Rous

by G. Thompson
oil on millboard, 1850-1875
14 3/4 in. x 11 1/2 in. (375 mm x 292 mm)
Purchased, 1938
Primary Collection
NPG 2957

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  • G. Thompson (active 1870), Artist. Artist or producer of 1 portrait.

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What first appears to be a conventional portrait of two Victorian gentlemen is enlivened by the unexpected detail of Admiral Henry John Rous holding the arm of his companion George Payne. The two men were great friends who shared a love of horse racing. Payne lost a fortune gambling while Rous retired from the Navy to devote himself to the sport. This portrait is one of a number of copies and variations that honour the pair as ‘Fathers of the Turf’.

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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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