9 OF 12 
George Eliot
9 of 12 portraits of George Eliot
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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George Eliot
by London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company, after Mayall
albumen print, circa 1881 (1858)
4in. x 3 1/4in. (101 mm x 77 mm)
Photographs Collection
NPG x9049
Sitterback to top
- George Eliot (Mary Ann Cross (née Evans)) (1819-1880), Novelist. Sitter associated with 12 portraits.
Artistsback to top
- London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company (active 1854-1922), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 952 portraits.
- Mayall, Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 44 portraits.
This portraitback to top
Eliot's journal notes that she and her life partner, George Henry Lewes, sat to the successful Regent Street photographer John E. Mayall on 26 February 1858. This photograph is a later print of that image. Eliot didn’t like the portrait and while she sent a copy to her friend, Cara Bray, she asked her not to hang it in a well-frequented room. She later told her publisher, John Blackwood, that 'I have rather a horror of photography. Mayall took one a couple of years ago [...] but it is not thoroughly satisfactory.'
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- Portraying George Eliot (16 January 2019 - 19 December 2019)
Events of 1858back to top
Current affairs
After Palmerston's government collapses, the Earl of Derby becomes Prime Minister for second time, again heading a minority government.The Property qualification for MPs is abolished; one of the demands made by the Chartists, this allowed men who did not own property to stand as parliamentary candidates. Lionel Nathan Rothschild becomes the first Jew to sit in Britain's House of Commons, taking his oath on the Old Testament.
Art and science
The pianist Charles Hallé founds a symphony orchestra in Manchester, the Halle; now Britain's oldest professional orchestra. The Hallé symphony rose to prominence in the mid-20th century, under the tenure of conductor John Barbirolli, during which time they made many recordings, including Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 8.International
The British Crown assumes control of India from the East India Company.The Treaty of Tientsin, ending the Second Opium War, gives European powers new rights to intervene in Chinese affairs
The Fenian Brotherhood is founded by John O'Mahony, an Irish emigrant to the United States, to support Irish republican ambitions.
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