COVE

In 2016, this chalk pastel was discovered by London picture dealer Andrew Sim. Sim recognized the image as a George Eliot portrait and has convincingly attributed it to George Barker Jr. (1818-1883). Barker was likely the unnamed "young artist" and "picture restorer" who proposed to Eliot in 1845 (Simon 2009; GEL 1954, 1: 183-84). 

Swiss painter François D'Albert Durade (1804-1886) composed the sketch, displayed first in this gallery exhibit, as a study for an 1850 oil painting. George Eliot resided in the home of François and Julie D'Albert Durade during her first trip to Switzerland, and she became close with the artist at that time (Holland 1881, 48). The oil painting that followed is frequently misdated as 1849, but Eliot mentions sitting for it in a letter dated 15 February 1850 (GEL 1954, 1: 257, 330). Following Eliot's death in 1880, Durade made a replica of this painting circa 1881. The replica is...

American artist Henry Davidson (1858-1924), likely working from a reproduction of François D'Albert Durade's 1881 painting, produced this half-tone plate engraving on wood for The Century Magazine (Fields 1899, 58: 455). At one point, he worked for Harper's New Monthly Magazine under the supervision of Thomas Johnson, whose 1881 engraving of George Eliot is also included in this gallery (Whittle 1919, 31-32; Harper's 1881, 62: 913). In addition to Eliot, other noteworthy subjects of Davidson's engravings include Princess Anne of Denmark (Whittle 1919, 32),...

The 1881 albumen print was taken from the 1858 photograph by John Mayall (1810-1901) of the London Stereoscopic Company (Eliot 1906, frontispiece). Both George Eliot and George Henry Lewes were photographed by Mayall in 1858, but they do not seem to have been photographed together at that time (Laski 1973, 76).

Irish painter Sir Frederic William Burton (1816-1900) sketched these portraits between 29 June and 22 July 1864, and he completed the chalk drawing in 1865. George Eliot sat for Burton in Kensington. The portrait was authorized to be exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts and to be etched for reproduction by Paul Rajon (Holland 1881, 48). 

British painter Lowes Cato Dickinson (1819-1908) created this ink drawing at a concert, likely without the sitter's knowledge. According to Marghanita Laski, Dickinson is one of the people likely to have travelled to the weekly popular concerts that George Eliot was known to attend "to see her ... or sometimes to snatch a sketch" (Laski 1973, 107).

Princess Louise (1848-1939), Duchess of Argyll, sketched this portrait of George Eliot on a programme while attending a concert (Laski 1973, 107).

John Sloan (1871-1951), an American artist, etched this portrait of George Eliot. According to Peter Morse, it was likely free-handed from a small wood-cutting in an 1888 edition of Scenes from Adam Bede (Morse 1969, 23-25). Sloan was better known for his etched illustrations of scenes and his landscape paintings ("John Sloan" 2020), making this portrait a rare find.

After George Eliot's death, George Richmond (1809-1896) composed this graphite portrait of her from memory. Richmond was an English painter and portraitist ("George Richmond" 2020).