Portrait of Charles Dickens
Engraver H. Blackburn Hart British
After William Powell Frith British
Sitter Charles Dickens British
Not on view
Frith's portrait of the celebrated author and social commentator became immensely popular, and many prints after it were published. The best of these was the large mixed method print by Thomas Oldham Barlow from 1862. By contrast Hart's color mezzotint was probably among the last after the engaging portrait. The likeness was captured at the height of Dickens's fame in 1859, and is set in the study of his Bloomsbury home in London. He is shown seated at his writing desk, and was a commission from his friend (and later biographer) John Forster (1812–1876), who subsequently bequeathed the portrait to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
