The Empty Chair
Sir Samuel Luke Fildes (1843-1927) was recommended to Dickens by J.E. Millais to illustrate Dickens's last novel, Edwin Drood, after Millais saw illustrations Fildes had engraved for the periodical The Graphic . During the few months before Dickens's death, Fildes formed a friendship with Dickens and his family. After Dickens's death, the family invited Fildes to stay at Gad's Hill. It was during this visit that he had the idea to sketch Dickens's desk and chair in the study just as they had been left. The engraving was published in the following Christmas number of The Graphic. Thousands of prints were sold and hung in homes across England. Fildes then painted a watercolour of the engraving which is now on display in Philadelphia. Buss's painting Dickens's Dream is based on Fildes's engraving.