Francis Clark

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Francis Clark

by Hills & Saunders
half-plate glass negative, early 1880s
Acquired, before 1980
Photographs Collection
NPG x35278

Sitterback to top

  • Francis Clark (1841-1895), Queen Victoria's Highland servant. Sitter in 3 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Hills & Saunders (active 1850-1900), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 206 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Gibson, Robin, The Face in the Corner: Animal Portraits from the Collections of the National Portrait Gallery, 1998, p. 62
  • Robin Gibson, Pets in Portraits, 2015, p. 96 Read entry

    Appointed by Prince Albert in 1849, John Brown became Queen Victoria’s gillie and personal servant in Scotland, but by 1864 he had been brought south to Osborne and before long had become totally indispensable to her. Hated by most of the Royal Family and despised by the court for his coarseness and rudeness, his privileged position was not without its stresses, and he took to heavy drinking. Despite looking hale and hearty in this photograph, he died prematurely a few years later.

    This photograph appears to have been taken below the south terrace at Windsor and shows Brown entrusted with the Queen’s favourite dogs of the period. The smooth fox terrier, whom Brown seems at pains to keep under control with his stick, appears in a commemorative portrait by C. Burton Barber that Victoria had commissioned a few months after Brown’s death and is identified as Wat. The border collie with the striking white T-mark on his chest, seated on the steps below, is one of a dynasty of at least four collies called Noble and also appears in the Barber painting. From other paintings by Barber in the Royal Collection, it is possible to conjecture with some certainty that the collie in Brown’s embrace was called Fern. Equally, the little smooth-coated dachshund, Waldmann, was the second of Victoria’s dachschunds of that name, many of them gifts from relatives in Germany. She had acquired him in Baden in 1872, and when he died in February 1881 she wrote in her diary: ‘Such a dear kind little dog - & kept all the others in order.’

Events of 1880back to top

Current affairs

The Liberals defeat the Conservatives, and Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the second time, taking over from Disraeli, who retires from politics.
The MP for Northampton and atheist Charles Bradlaugh, refuses to swear on the Bible and so forfeits his right to take his seat. Despite having the support of Gladstone and J.S Mill, it takes six years before he can take his seat, after which he pushes through a new Oaths Act (1888).

Art and science

Thomas Huxley delivers his address 'Science and Culture' at the opening of Josiah Mason's science college in Birmingham (published the following year). Huxley argues that the study of modern literature, combined with knowledge of science, should be promoted in education above classical literature, echoing the claim made by the poet and critic Matthew Arnold. Huxley, an early advocate of 'Darwinism', did much to popularise evolutionary theory.

International

Buenos Aires finally becomes the permanent capital of Argentina, following sixty years of political debates around the issue. The city was federalised, politically separated from the Buenos Aires Province, and placed under direct control of the national government.
Despite allegations of vote buying, Cecil Rhodes is elected member of parliament for Barkly West in the Cape Colony, marking the start of his political career in South Africa.

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