G. H. Lewes

George Henry Lewes

John & Charles Watkins

c.1865

Albumen carte-de-visite

3 3/8 in. x 2 1/4 in. (86 mm x 56 mm)

© National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG Ax7530)

Purchased, 1949

The writer G. H. Lewes is best known now as the partner of George Eliot. They had met in October 1851 when both were associated with the Westminster Review, and had been together for about a dozen years by this time. They had bought The Priory, their home near Regent's Park, in 1863. Lewes looks comfortably ensconced at his desk here, with his dog at his feet. Thanks to the colouring of its face, here is a dog that really does seem to take after its owner!

Text by Jacqueline Banerjee

Related Material

  • George Eliot 1819-80: A Biographical Introduction
  • Photograph of Lewes from a drawing by Rudolf Lehmann