It may be inferred from this letter that the drawing was copied upon the wood-block by the engraver himself, whose name (T. Bolton) is appended to the frontispiece. The original picture was purchased at the sale of Dickens's effects in 1870 for the sum of £110, 5s., by the late Earl of Darnley, for many years the novelist's friend and neighbour.
Clarkson Stanfield, whose intimacy with the Dickens family was very close, used to take part in their Christmas sports and gambols, and in connection with the private theatricals at Tavistock House his services as scene-painter were invaluable. Apropos of this, the novelist once wrote to Frank Stone, A.R.A.: "Stanfield bent on desperate effects, and all day long with his coat off, up to his eyes in distemper colours." Again: "If Stanfield don't astonish 'em [the audience], I'm a Dutchman. O Heaven, if you could hear the ideas he proposes to me, making even my hair stand on end!" For Wilkie Collins's drama, "The Lighthouse," produced at Tavistock House, the artist painted a very remarkable act-drop representing the Eddystone Lighthouse, concerning which it may be observed that, although it occupied the great painter only one or two mornings, it realised at the novelist's death nearly a thousand guineas!
Dickens, when writing to Stanfield, frequently adopted nautical expressions, in allusion to the artist's experiences as a seaman. He sometimes addressed him as "Old Tarpaulin," "Old Salt," "Messmet," &c., and as an example of this I here reprint a letter, written on an occasion when Stanfield innocently demanded of Dickens to be informed of the amount due for a pair of candlesticks that the novelist had sent him:—
"My Dear Stanny,—In reference to the damage for the candlesticks, I beg to quote (from 'The Cricket on the Hearth,' by the highly popular and deservedly so Dick) this reply:
'I'll damage you if you inquire.'
Ever yours,
My block-reeving,
Main-brace splicing,
Lead-heaving,
Ship-conning,
Stun'sail-bending,
Deck-swabbing,
Son of a sea-cook,Henry Bluff,
H.M.S. Timber."[39]
During the last ten years of his life Stanfield's health became less strong, and he was obliged in some measure to retire from the congenial circle of his artistic and literary associates, continuing, however, to take great delight in his art. Stanfield breathed his last on May 18, 1867. His death proved a great blow to Dickens, who, in a note of sympathy to Mr. George Stanfield, observed: "No one of your father's friends can ever have loved him more dearly than I always did, or can have better known the worth of his noble character." To the famous painter, for whom he ever entertained a strong affection, the novelist had dedicated "Little Dorrit," and, as a tribute to his memory, wrote (in All the Year Round) a sympathetic eulogium upon his departed friend of thirty years, where, after alluding to the artist as "the National historian of the Sea," he says: "He was a charitable, religious, gentle, truly good man. A genuine man, incapable of pretence or of concealment. He was the soul of frankness, generosity, and simplicity. The most genial, the most affectionate, the most loving, and the most lovable of men."
FOOTNOTES:
[39] From "The Letters of Charles Dickens." Mr. Field Stanfield informs me that it is quite certain the candlesticks were not a gift from Dickens to his father. It would seem most probable that there may have been some accident during theatrical preparations, for which the artist considered himself responsible, and that Dickens undertook to repair the misfortune himself.