Edward William Lane

This portraitback to top

Lane is shown seated on a cushion in the 'memlook' dress of an Egyptian gentleman. The donor wrote (letter of 28 March 1893, NPG archives): 'Richard was so much struck by its graceful folds that he determined to attempt a statue of his brother in this costume.' Sir Frederick Burton wrote (letter of 26 March 1893, NPG archives): 'My old friend Richard Lane, who modelled it soon after his brother returned from Egypt had it in his hall until he died.' The exact date was provided by the donor. Behind the figure of Lane are a writing case and a box; in his right hand is a cloth, and under his left hand is a small box, apparently containing an inkstand (this is shown in the ILN drawing - see below), and a long unidentified object. Although Richard Lane is primarily known as a lithographer, [1] this statue of his brother is not his only work of sculpture. He executed a bust of his brother, dating from about 1833, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford [2], and other busts of his children and relatives. A woodcut published ILN, LXIX (1876), 213, is after a portrait by R. J. Lane of c.1835, probably that exhibited RA, 1839 (778): the woodcut shows the sitter in Egyptian dress, with the same writing-case and inkstand (open) as on the statue. R. J. Lane also exhibited an unspecified portrait RA, 1872 (681), and executed a lithograph (example in British Museum), showing his brother in the dress of a Bedouin Arab. No other portraits of the sitter are known, except a woodcut from an unidentified magazine (cutting in NPG).

Footnotesback to top

1) A large collection of Lane's lithographs were presented to the NPG by Dr A. Lane Poole, 1956.
2) See Mrs R. Lane Poole, Catalogue of Oxford Portraits, III (1925), 310.

Provenanceback to top

The artist; by descent to his great-nephew, Stanley Lane Poole, and presented by him, 1893.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.