13th - 15th March 2024 - Free entry with a lottery ticket
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We're delighted to once again be taking part in the National Lottery Open Week! This is our way of saying thank you to the National Lottery players who have helped support our museum.
Between 13th and 15th March 2024, we are offering free entry to the Charles Dickens Museum to anyone who has a lottery ticket.
You'll need 1 ticket per person, and free entry is only available on the select days.
We hope to see you here!
To book your place, click here.
Season One of the new Charles Dickens Museum podcast
]]>We're delighted to launch our first ever series of 'Inimitable,' the podcast brought to you by the Charles Dickens Museum. For our first series, we wanted to take a closer look at Christmas, and in particular, Dickens's most famous story of all, 'A Christmas Carol.'
Episode One introduces us to this remarkable little book. What was it about the festive season which attracted Dickens, and what sort of impact did this little novella have on his Victorian audiences?
This playbill from February 1844 advertises the very first adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol.' Discussed by Cindy, Frankie and Emma in episode one.
Episode Two, 'Scrooge's London' takes a look at the social context of 'A Christmas Carol.' What was London really like in the 1840s? What help was available to the London poor? What was life like in the Victorian slums? And how did all of this shape Dickens's writing?
This illustration by George Cruikshank depicts Oliver Twist asking the workhouse master for more. The workhouses have become a symbol of the Victorian era, as discussed by Dr Lee Jackson in episode two.
Episode Three looks at how the physical book of 'A Christmas Carol,' came to be made, exploring the carefully crafted process of creating this beautiful, little book. How was it designed? Who drove its creation? And what does all this tell us about Dickens as a writer?
In this trial edition of 'A Christmas Carol,' Dickens has played with the colour scheme, replacing the blue ink with green. This edition was never released, however, and the colouring remained blue. This piece is discussed by Frankie and Emma in episode three.
In this sketch by illustrator John Leech, we see Scrooge depicted in art for the very first time, as he is confronted by the ghost of Jacob Marley.
Scrooge encounters the joyful scene of the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Episode Four takes a closer look at those harrowing figures, Ignorance and Want, two children presented to Scrooge, who are physically altered by their poverty. Were these figures based on real children? Why are they included in an otherwise joyful part of the story? What is Dickens trying to tell his readers through these characters?
Scrooge is shown the children, Ignorance and Want, by the Ghost of Christmas Present. Discussed by Dr Lee Jackson and Dr Cindy Sughrue in Episode Four.
Episode Five 'Striking a Blow,' explores the politics of Charles Dickens. Was Dickens attempting to agitate for political change? What were his perceptions of the political structures of the day? And how political was 'A Christmas Carol?'
There were several attempts to prevent the working classes from drinking alcohol, which Dickens always felt was deeply hypocritical on the part of the wealthy, as discussed by Dr Lee Jackson and Dr Cindy Sughrue in Episode Five.
In our final episode of the season, 'Food, Glorious food,' explores how Dickens used food in his fiction. Why was food so important to him? What do his descriptions tell us about Dickens as a person? And did he really help to make turkey the most popular Christmas meat?
This is a recipe book, written by Charles Dickens's wife, Catherine, under the pen-name 'Lady Maria Clutterbuck.' This book gives us a wonderful insight into how the Dickens family ate, as discussed by Pen Vogler in Episode Six.
Do you live in London? Do you have an interest in Charles Dickens? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then we want to hear from you!
We're looking for people from our local community to help us shape our next temporary exhibition 'Mutual Friends: The Adventures of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.' You don't need any prior knowledge about Dickens, Wilkie Collins, or the museum industry, instead we're looking for your own unique insights and thoughts on a range of subjects.
Join us to:
Learn more about the lives of these remarkable 19th century writers.
Discuss how the key themes of the exhibition - friendship, collaboration and performance - are relevant to you today.
Share and develop ideas for interactive activities in the exhibition and discover how museum exhibitions are developed.
Meet new people and contribute to the work of the museum.
What's involved?
You don't need any prior knowledge about Dickens or the museum.
You do need to live in London, preferably near the museum in the borough of Camden and Islington.
You will be able to attend the sessions in person at the museum.
You will be 18+
You'll be happy to share your thoughts and experiences and contribute to the exhibition content.
Light refreshments will be provided for each of the sessions, as well as an introductory tour of the Charles Dickens Museum. In return for your time you will receive up to 5 free tickets to visit the exhibition when it opens: 15th November 2023 - 22nd February 2024.
Dates:
Thursday 17th August, Thursday 31st August, Thursday 14th September.
Time: 6-8pm
Location:
Charles Dickens Museum, 48-49 Doughty Street, London, WC1N 2LX.
www.dickensmuseum.com
For more information and to sign up contact: curatorial@dickensmuseum.com or call 020 7405 2127.
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Thursday 6th April - Open 10am - 5pm, last entry at 4pm.
Good Friday 7th April - Open 10am - 5pm, last entry at 4pm.
Easter Saturday 8th April - Open 10am - 5pm, last entry at 4pm.
Easter Sunday 9th April - Open 10am - 5pm, last entry at 4pm.
Easter Monday 10th April - Open 10am - 5pm, last entry at 4pm.
Tuesday 11th April - Closed.
From Wednesday 12th April we return to our normal opening days / times, which is Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm with last entry at 4pm.
We're delighted to be taking part in this year's National Lottery Open Week to say thank you to the players who help raise the funds for the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Between 22nd and 24th March 2023 you will be able to enter the Charles Dickens Museum for free if you have a National Lottery Ticket. All you need to do is show your ticket to the reception upon arrival, and you'll be welcomed straight in.
Please Note:
The Charles Dickens Museum is pleased to announce the three winning entries for our writing competition. We received entries from all over the world, and were delighted by so many fantastic, and terrifying, tales.
All entries were collated by our museum team and submitted anonymously to the judging panel. Our three winners are Kimberley Ballard, Samantha Pope and Caitlin McKay. Congratulations to all three of you on your success. Extracts from their stories will be played as part of our upcoming exhibition, 'To Be Read at Dusk: Dickens, Ghosts & the Supernatural.'
Our judges consisted of James Swanton, Ian Dickens, Dr. Cindy Sughrue and Frankie Kubicki. They would like to express their thanks to everyone who took part in the competition. Keep creating, keep imagining and most of all, keep writing!
You can read all three winning stories by clicking here.
If you have any questions, drop us a line at events@dickensmuseum.com.
The Winning Story
]]>A visit to the Charles Dickens Museum allows you to truly immerse yourself in literary history, as you step back in time to when Charles Dickens and his family lived at 48 Doughty Street. We offer you a glimpse into the private life of Charles Dickens and insight into the places and people who inspired his remarkable work.
We want to make sure you have the best possible visit and that the stories of these rooms and the extraordinary collection displayed within them are told. Because of this, we're offering a free, downloadable audio guide to every visitor to keep.
Narrated by Ollie Dickens, a descendant of the great author, our audio guide will help bring Dickens’s home and work to life, and enable you to really picture what the life of Charles Dickens would have been like here at 48 Doughty Street.
All you need to do is purchase a ticket. The link to the download will be emailed automatically to you, which you can listen to on your own device, before, during and after your visit. Forever.
If you do not want to use your own device, you can still hire one for £3 during your visit.
We can't wait to welcome you to the Charles Dickens Museum. You can book your tickets in advance, by following this link, or on arrival at the Museum.
Admission charges 2022/23:
with effect from 1st April 2022
We can't wait to welcome you to the Charles Dickens Museum. The safety of our staff, visitors and volunteers is our priority, but we also know that you want to really enjoy your visit. We've put together a list of what we're doing, to make sure you get the most out of your visit.
If you would like to talk to one of our team, you are welcome to get in touch on 020 7405 2127. |
What could be more quintessentially English than enjoying a cold ice cream in Mr Dickens's own garden! The Charles Dickens Museum are pleased to announce we'll be stocking Criterion Ice Cream for the summer holidays. Made in the UK and with a variety of different flavours, it's the perfect way to round off your visit. Although we are not yet able to reopen our cafe to its full capacity, it is great that we can introduce this new way for you to make the most of your day out! Let's just hope your day is calmer than Dickens's own: "Who would suppose we had been flying at such a rate, and shall take wing again directly? Refreshment-room full, platform full, porter with watering-pot deliberately cooling a hot wheel, another porter with equal deliberation helping the rest of the wheels bountifully to ice cream."
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The Museum’s Explore site is a treasure trove of new digital content comprising audio files, object highlights, short films, 360 room tours, stories and family activities covering a plethora of topics connected to Dickens, from dining to journalism.
The open access site allows everyone to be inspired by the story of Dickens and the Museum’s extraordinary collections, with an array of content formats to suit many different learning styles.
Navigate your way through the cornucopia of Dickensian delights by working your way through each room in turn or just get delightfully lost as you explore at your own pace. Start exploring here - https://dickensmuseum.com/blogs/explore/
#Dickens #DickensMuseum #Explore #MuseumFromHome
]]>Donate now: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/DickensMuseumAppeal
As we are forced to close again, we need your help more than ever...
2020 has been a tough year for so many people, here in the UK and around the world.
Here at the Charles Dickens Museum, we have put our all into facing each challenge with energy and commitment, changing and changing again. Our staff and volunteers, buoyed up by the thousands of people who have visited in person or online, have worked tirelessly to adapt to new circumstances and to ensure that the museum and its wonderful collections are secure now and for many years to come.
Having been forced to close for four months earlier this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were thrilled to reopen in July and welcome visitors back to Doughty Street. Although social distancing measures reduced our capacity, it was a pleasure to see a steady stream of visitors exploring the house in which Charles Dickens and his family lived, and engaging with the extraordinary collections that tell the story of Dickens’s life and work.
Just as we were gearing up for the festive season – one of the most anticipated and loved times of year at the Museum – the Prime Minister announced that England would be returning to another period of lockdown, forcing us to close yet again from 5th November for four weeks.
As an independent Museum that relies on visitors coming through the door to generate most of our income, this was a real blow, especially when we would normally expect to earn around £90,000 during this period.
Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on!
Ride on over all obstacles, and win the race!
So, as we temporarily close our doors again, we must ask once more for your help.
We know how difficult this year has been for people, businesses and institutions everywhere, and we truly appreciate the circumstances under which everybody is living now. But we are appealing to all admirers of Dickens and lovers of the Museum to consider donating now. Your generosity will help to ensure that we can re-open again and be ready for the next stage of our journey.
As ever, thank you for your understanding, warmth and support. Good wishes to all of you and yours, and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Cindy Sughrue
Director
3rd November 2020
Thrilled to be continuing to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens, one of the world’s most famous and loved writers with this exciting partnership with the Isle of Man Post Office. Today (14th October 2020) sees the publishing of a set of six carefully curated stamps featuring five engravings from Dickens's most famous novella A Christmas Carol and a miniature portrait of the author from the same period as the book was written.
The highest value stamp features the ‘lost portrait’ of Charles Dickens, depicting the literary star at the age of 31. The painting was lost for over 130 years, and recently, miraculously, turned up in a box of trinkets in South Africa. Art dealers Philip Mould & Company formally re-identified the portrait and it now resides in the Charles Dickens Museum, London.
The ‘Charles Dickens - 150th’ collection is available as a Set and Sheet Set, Presentation Pack and First Day Cover and a limited edition of First Day Covers signed by Simon Callow. For further information, please visit https://www.iompost.com/dickens
Cindy Sughrue, Director of the Charles Dickens Museum: "This has been a wonderful collaboration to mark the 150th anniversary and to highlight the Museum and its extraordinary collection. Considering that Margaret Gillies' portrait of Dickens was lost for over 130 years, it’s quite something to see it presented so beautifully on a stamp. We’re absolutely delighted with this commemorative set and its celebration of the timeless qualities of A Christmas Carol."
Actor Simon Callow, Patron of the Charles Dickens Museum, said, "I am really very happy to be returning to the Charles Dickens Museum, one of my absolute favourite places on earth, to support the launch of this splendid suite of stamps. John Leech's sketches were the very first illustrations of characters that had only just formed in the imagination of Charles Dickens and would soon become fixed in the hearts and minds of his readers. It's a particularly nice touch that they're joined in this set by the 'eagle-eyed' portrait of Dickens, which captures him when he was in the midst of creating them."
Maxine Cannon, General Manager Isle of Man Stamps & Coins, said: “It is with immense pride that we commemorate Britain’s Greatest Writer and his work ‘A Christmas Carol’ which is inextricably linked to Christmas. We would like to thank the Charles Dickens Museum for their guidance and permissions and Simon Callow for his support in bringing this wonderful collection to life. We are delighted to be able to offer our support to the Charles Dickens Museum to help them continue their incredible work in keeping such a prominent influence in the public eye.”
]]>Today, the Charles Dickens Museum has been awarded a significant grant as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Museum, at no. 48 Doughty Street, Dickens’s only surviving London house, re-opened to visitors at the end of July, following four months of enforced closure due to COVID-19 restrictions. 48 Doughty Street is the London residence where Dickens wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, completed The Pickwick Papers and began Barnaby Rudge.
On re-opening, the Museum launched a new special exhibition, Technicolour Dickens: The Living Image of Charles Dickens. The exhibition shows how images of Dickens were consumed and circulated as soon as he found fame, throughout his career and after his death. It brings together a dizzying array of depictions of Dickens, as well as clothing, personal items and descriptions by those who knew and saw him, to reveal Dickens as he actually was and to explore the enduring power of his image.
The Museum is one of 1,385 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support. £257 million of investment has been announced today as part of the first round of the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England. Further rounds of funding in the cultural and heritage sector are due to be announced over the coming weeks.
Cindy Sughrue, Director of the Charles Dickens Museum, said, “We are delighted and relieved to receive this grant, which will allow us to continue to welcome visitors over the coming months. While we at the Museum live and breathe Dickens all year round, we’ll soon be turning our attention towards Christmas, a time when his work becomes a part of many more people’s lives across the world. This year, it feels as though Dickens’s messages of generosity of spirit, warmth and community will be needed more than ever, at the end of a sapping year. We have big plans for Christmas and this grant will enable us to look ahead with optimism.”
Recognised by Historic England as one of the top 100 places that tell the remarkable story of England and its impact on the world (Irreplaceable: A History of England in 100 Places, 2018), 48 Doughty Street is a place of pilgrimage and a beacon in a local community that fizzes with Dickens’s legacy.
Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England, said, “Theatres, museums, galleries, dance companies and music venues bring joy to people and life to our cities, towns and villages. This life-changing funding will save thousands of cultural spaces loved by local communities and international audiences. Further funding is still to be announced and we are working hard to support our sector during these challenging times.”
Oliver Dowden, Culture Secretary, said, “This funding is a vital boost for the theatres, music venues, museums and cultural organisations that form the soul of our nation. It will protect these special places, save jobs and help the culture sector’s recovery. These places and projects are cultural beacons the length and breadth of the country. This unprecedented investment in the arts is proof this government is here for culture, with further support to come in the days and weeks ahead so that the culture sector can bounce back strongly.”
#HereForCulture #CultureRecoveryFund
]]>Thanks to your generous donations we have raised a hugely humbling £42,000+. If you are unable to visit in the near future or have the means to continue supporting us please do consider donating to our Just Giving campaign as we continue navigating the difficult road ahead.
See our progress and donate via https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/DickensMuseumAppeal.
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“From these garish lights I vanish now for evermore, with a heartfelt, grateful, respectful,
and affectionate farewell”.
These were Dickens’s parting words at his last public reading. He died three months later on 9th June 1870. Today, we mark the 150th anniversary of the great Victorian writer’s death.
Amongst the commemorations, we are thrilled to be able to share with you this stunning new film of a sound and light installation which was projected onto Westminster Abbey’s iconic West Towers over the weekend. The projection from Saturday evening was created by light and sound specialists, Luxmuralis, in collaboration with the Charles Dickens Museum and Westminster Abbey.
The work is rich and vivid, saturated in colour and dense with visual effects set against a stirring soundtrack which builds to form a dramatic and poignant tribute to the writer. It features illustrations, quotes and a new colourised photograph of the author taken from the exhibition ‘Technicolour Dickens: The Living Image of Charles Dickens’ which will launch at the Charles Dickens Museum as soon as it is able to re-open.
We're also honoured to be able to share this special message on behalf of the Dickens family. Filmed from lockdown by representatives of the family, many of whom had hoped to be attending wreath laying services at Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey today in honour of their ancestor Charles Dickens.
Concept, script and edit by Ian Dickens
'Isolation' - Written and performed by Michael Dickens
#Dickens150
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It is the first taster of major new exhibition, Technicolour Dickens: The Living Image of Charles Dickens, to be opened at the Museum at the author’s London home as soon as COVID-19 allows. Technicolour Dickens has been created in conjunction with associate co-curators Dr Leon Litvack of Queen’s University, Belfast, and Professor Julian North of University of Leicester.
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Like everybody else, we were stopped in our tracks in March when we were forced to close due to the coronavirus pandemic. Yet, unlike many other cultural organisations that receive ongoing funding from the government, the Charles Dickens Museum is an independent charity, conceived as self-funding from the start, 95 years ago. This means we must earn every penny we need to look after Dickens’s house and the world-class collection that brings Dickens and his work to life. We rely on our visitors coming through the Doughty Street front door to ensure that the Museum continues to exist.
…I have been most perseveringly and ding-dong-doggedly at work…
When we were forced to close, it’s fair to say that we were in the middle of something of a purple patch; we had just announced the acquisition of a wealth of Dickens rarities that we are eager to share; we had installed the eagle-eyed ‘lost portrait’ of Dickens in his study following its disappearance for 170 years; and we were on the verge of opening a new exhibition that would present the image and reveal the character of the man more vividly than has ever been possible. And public interest in Dickens is as strong as ever, perhaps even more so now, as we seek solace in literature and the distraction of a great storyteller.
Like Dickens, we are unable to stay still; although the Museum is closed, his Grade I-listed home needs constant attention, and our unrivalled, precious collections need care and conservation. While we have been forced to reduce to a skeleton staff, the Museum’s work to preserve Dickens’s legacy has to continue, in spite of the fact that no money is coming in.
Don't leave off hoping, or it's of no use doing anything. Hope, hope, to the last!
We are utterly aware of the pressure on people, businesses and institutions everywhere and the circumstances under which everybody is living now; however, we are appealing to all admirers of Dickens and lovers of the Museum to consider donating now. We need to raise £30,000 each month to cover the basic costs of looking after Dickens’s house and the collection it holds.
Your generosity will help to ensure that the door of 48 Doughty Street (and yes it’s his original door) will be able to swing open again to welcome visitors back to Dickens’s home.
If you or someone you know is able to help, please donate via this link, or if you prefer to donate by bank transfer, please contact me directly on cindy.sughrue@dickensmuseum.com. Thank you very much, as ever, for your understanding, warmth and support. Good wishes to all of you and all of yours. We look forward to seeing you as soon as we can.
Cindy Sughrue
Director
15th April 2020
You can make a donation online at any time. Donate online now by clicking here
]]>Our special exhibition Beautiful Books: Dickens and the Business of Christmas looked at the advent and increasing popularity of greeting cards in the latter half of the 1800s. New printing technology like lithography meant they became more and more colourful as the century wore on.
Why don’t you choose a card, print and colour it in? Downloadable files available here ~ choose from Butterfly Card, Frame Card or the first ever Christmas Card design. Don't forget to post and tag us on social media so we can share on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
For inspiration below are examples of some of the lovely Christmas cards that were on display, on loan from Maggs Bros.
@DickensMuseum
#VictorianCardColouring #MuseumFromHome #DickensMuseum
On what would have been Dickens's 208th birthday we are delighted to announce the acquisition of over 300 items from the most substantial private collection of Dickens material in the world. The items acquired by the Museum include 144 handwritten letters by Dickens (25 of which are unpublished!), personal items including writing implements and jewellery, original artwork by the illustrators of Dickens’s books, including George Cruikshank, John Leech, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), Joseph Clayton Clarke (Kyd) and Frank Reynolds, a range of unpublished manuscripts and letters written by others in Dickens’s circle and 25 books from Dickens’s own library.
The Museum’s acquisition, from a private collection in the USA, has been made possible by a generous grant of £1.22m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, together with substantial contributions from Art Fund, Friends of the National Libraries and the Dickens Fellowship, totalling £1.8m.
The material will provide rich new insights into the life and work of Charles Dickens (7 February 1812–9 June 1870), throwing new light on his personal and business relationships, and state of mind while writing his novels, as well as offering vivid insights into his character 150 years after his death.
The collection will be researched, catalogued and conserved before going on display over the next two years both online and in the rooms of Dickens’s London home.
“This is a treasure trove – a true once-in-a-lifetime moment for the Museum. 150 years after the death of Dickens, it is wonderful to be able to bring such a rich and important collection to the Museum at his first family home. We are immensely grateful to all of the organisations that have supported us so generously, and to the collector for his original acuity and giving the Museum the opportunity of acquiring this collection. We are looking forward to sharing the items with our visitors, both online and in person in the rooms of Dickens’s home.” - Cindy Sughrue, Director
If you missed it, we recommend you check out this fantastic creation by In The Book. A literary tube map which replaces stations with fantastic pieces of literature set there. With classic London staples such as Great Expectations and Oliver Twist the map also includes lesser known, but equally deserving novels such as Tunnel Vision and The Wimbledon Poisoner. Each piece of literature adds their own colour to the city on this star-studded map.
This map shows you where your favourite characters made a name for themselves. From the legendary Harry Potter boarding his train to Hogwarts at Kings Cross, to Mary Poppins flying into the Banks’ family home just off the Central Line.
You can vividly picture Ebenezer Scrooge skulking home after work through the streets near Monument station, and Sherlock storming out of his address at Baker Street to solve another case - closely followed by faithful Watson.
“We created this tube map of London to get people excited about reading. At In The Book we believe that literature has the ability to paint places like few things can. By getting lost in one of these remarkable stories, you can see London like you never have before. This tube map helps engage people with outstanding novels.”
See the full article and zoom in to the map at https://www.inthebook.com/en-gb/literary-tube-map/
In The Book are a children’s book publisher, established in 2017 in Hertfordshire. We believe that books offer a world for children to lose themselves in, while developing their social skills, confidence and cultural understanding. We are passionate about encouraging children to read, and aim to promote the benefits of doing so.
]]>Today, the Charles Dickens Museum is delighted to announce that, following a successful fundraising campaign, it has acquired and secured the future of the ‘lost portrait’ of Dickens. Recently re-discovered by Philip Mould & Co, the exquisite portrait miniature by Margaret Gillies has found a permanent home at the Museum at 48 Doughty Street, the London residence where Dickens wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, completed The Pickwick Papers and began Barnaby Rudge.
Since launching the Lost Portrait Appeal in November 2018, the Museum has received magnificently generous donations from admirers of Dickens from all over the world and substantial grants from Art Fund and the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, to meet the £180, 000 target and enable the portrait to join its permanent collection.
The Gillies portrait will go on display from 24th October 2019 and will be a highlight of the festive season. The portrait will become a regular part of the Museum’s programme of displays, though it will require times away from display to preserve the quality of the 176-year-old watercolour.
Dr Cindy Sughrue, Director of the Charles Dickens Museum, said, “We are so excited to be bringing the ‘lost’ portrait home and are extremely grateful for, and touched by, the generous support that we have received from individual donors all over the world, and our major funders, Art Fund and the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund. It is a magnificent affirmation of the enduring appeal of Dickens’s writing and the worldwide fascination that he continues to inspire. We are honoured to have worked alongside our partners in this endeavour, Philip Mould & his team, who brought the painting back into the public eye. My thoughts go back to last year, when Philip first contacted us and showed us an image of the painting. It was a memorable, heart-in-mouth moment, to say the least. This is a vibrant portrayal of Dickens, at 31 years of age, already known the world over but with so much still ahead of him and in the midst of writing arguably his best-loved work, A Christmas Carol.”
In 2017, the portrait miniature covered in mould was sold in an auction of household goods in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, in a box of trinkets alongside a brass dish, an old recorder and a metal toy lobster. Last year, the painting arrived at the Philip Mould & Co Gallery in London and, following conservation and provenance research, was confirmed to be the portrait of Charles Dickens (1812-1870) painted by Margaret Gillies (1803-1887) over six sittings in 1843.
After the publication of A Christmas Carol, with Dickens firmly in the public eye, Gillies’ portrait was exhibited at the 1844 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and it quickly became the defining image of Dickens. On seeing the portrait, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning said it “has the dust and mud of humanity about him, notwithstanding those eagle eyes”. However, in 1886, Gillies noted that she had ‘lost sight of the portrait itself’. It remained lost until the South African auction in 2017.
To read and watch the full story about the rediscovery of Dickens's Lost Portrait click here.
Stephen Deuchar, Director, Art Fund, said, “We're very pleased to have supported this excellent new acquisition by the Charles Dickens Museum. Portraying a young Dickens in the year A Christmas Carol was published, it will brilliantly animate the story of his life and works at his former home in Bloomsbury. Thought lost for over 170 years, this important portrait can now be enjoyed by visitors to the Museum for years to come.”
Julia Brettell, Manager, Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, said, “This captivating portrait miniature of the young Charles Dickens is a key acquisition for the Charles Dickens Museum. Painted at a critical moment in his career, it depicts Dickens not only as a writer on the cusp of huge success, but also reflects his passion for social reform. The Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund is pleased to be able to contribute to the purchase and to support the Museum’s role as a centre for the study and appreciation of Dickens’s life and work.”
With special thanks to the Art Fund, Arts Council England/ V&A Purchase Grant Fund and all of our donors. Full list to be announced shortly.
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