Charles Dickens in 1851. From an etching after a daguerreotype by Mayall
see [page 14]
The first practitioner of daguerreotype portraiture in England was Mr. John Mayall, sen., who left America in 1845 and established himself in Regent Street, London. He soon numbered among his clientèle many celebrities of the day, including Charles Dickens, who paid his first visit shortly after returning from the Continent. During a period of several years Dickens sat to Mr. Mayall, the first of these portraits being taken while he was writing “David Copperfield.”
Charles Dickens in 1855. From the painting by Ary Scheffer
see [page 16]
This famous portrait was exhibited in 1856 in the Royal Academy, and in July 1870 was purchased by the trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, where it now hangs. Dickens himself considered it “a fine spirited head, painted at his [Scheffer’s] very best, and with a very easy and natural appearance in it. But it does not look to me at all like, nor does it strike me that if I saw it in a gallery, I should suppose myself to be the original.... As a work of art, I see in it spirit combined with perfect ease, and yet I don’t see myself. So I come to the conclusion that I never do see myself.”
Charles Dickens in 1844. From a miniature by Miss Margaret Gillies
see [page 19]
The interesting miniature by Miss Margaret Gillies has mysteriously disappeared, and is not improbably buried in some private collection. It was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1844.
Charles Dickens in 1859. After the painting by W. P. Frith, A.R.A.