William Makepeace Thackeray

Inscriptionback to top

Incised on base of face cast: D. Brucciani & C^o L^td London and on hand cast: D. Brucciani & Co.

This portraitback to top

Thackeray died during the night of 23/24 December 1863, and the death mask was made the following morning at the request of the surgeon, Sir Henry Thompson. There is a discussion of the death mask in L. Hutton, Portraits in Plaster (New York, 1894), pp 86,91-92,95, where another example is reproduced, p 89. Another cast of the hand is reproduced G. N. Ray, The Letters and Private Papers of W. M. Thackeray (1945-6), IV, facing 296, and a fourth cast was in the collection of Major Lambert, sold Anderson Galleries, New York, 26 February 1914 (lot 574).

Provenanceback to top

Messrs Brucciani & Co, presented by them, 1908.


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.

View all known portraits for William Makepeace Thackeray