''Charles Dickens in His Study'' is an oil on canvas painting by English artist

William Powell Frith William Powell Frith (9 January 1819 – 2 November 1909) was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1853, presenting ''The Slee ...

, created in 1859. The painting is signed and dated at the lower left, 'W P Frith fecit 1859'. It is held at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

History and description

It was John Forster, a friend and biographer of English writer

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

, who commissioned the current portrait from Frith, at the height of Dickens' fame. Firth was also a great admirer of Dickens and took often inspiration from his work in his genre paintings. Forster had a similar photograph of Dickens to be taken before the painting, but Frith decided to ignore it and didn't use it. Frith seems to have struggled to finish the portrait. In a letter of the same year, he wrote about his "portrait of Charles Dickens whose troublesome face I shall remember to the day of my death". Forster appreciated the final result, unlike Dickens, because he didn't like the way his expression was depicted in it. Dickens stated that "it is a little too much (to my thinking) as if my next door neighbour were my deadly foe, uninsured, and I had just received tidings of his house being a-fire." The portrait depicts Dickens seated in his house study, in

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

, looking to his left, while not facing directly the viewer, with legs crossed, with one hand on his pocket and the other arm on the chair. In his secretary, to the right, some pages of the first chapter of ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by English author Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long impr ...

'', the novel he was then working on, can be seen, as well as two volumes. At the bottom right appears a wicker basket."Dickens and Frith", by David Trotter, ''William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age'', London, Guidall Art Gallery, 2006, pp. 29-40

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles Dickens in His Study 1859 paintings Paintings by William Powell Frith Portraits of men Cultural depictions of Charles Dickens Paintings in the Victoria and Albert Museum Books in art Oil on canvas paintings 19th-century portraits

History and description

See also

References