Algernon Charles Swinburne
7 of 25 portraits of Algernon Charles Swinburne
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Algernon Charles Swinburne
by Harry Furniss
pen and ink, published 16 August 1890
6 3/8 in. x 5 5/8 in. (162 mm x 143 mm)
Purchased, 1948
Primary Collection
NPG 3611
Sitterback to top
- Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909), Poet and literary reviewer. Sitter in 25 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Harry Furniss (1854-1925), Caricaturist. Artist or producer associated with 435 portraits, Sitter in 13 portraits.
This portraitback to top
Harry Furniss published this pen and ink portrait in his book Some Victorian Men (1924), depicting an elderly Swinburne, dishevelled and exasperated, perhaps as a result of the vast amount of work he produced in later life. In the short biography that accompanied the portrait Furniss described Swinburne as 'certainly the most brilliant genius as a poet England has ever seen.'
Events of 1890back to top
Current affairs
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, publishes In Darkest England, in which he compares the supposedly 'civilised' England with 'Darkest Africa'. A critique of the degenerate state of society, Booth also proposed social welfare schemes to alleviate the sufferings of the urban poor.The world's first electric underground railway opens to the public in London, passing under the Thames and linking the City of London and Stockwell.
Art and science
William Morris founds the Kelmscott Press, a revival of art and craft techniques of book printing. Publications included The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896), with decorative designs and typeface by Morris and illustrations by Edward Burne-Jones.Vincent Van Gogh dies after shooting himself in the chest in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray first appears in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine .
International
Cecil Rhodes, organiser of the diamond-mining De Beers Consolidated Mines, becomes premier of Cape Colony as part of his expansionist aims in South Africa.In Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II dismisses Otto von Bismarck.
An international anti-slavery conference is held in Brussels, leading to the signing of a treaty by all the major maritime nations covering action to be taken against the trade in Africa and suppression of it by sea.
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