Portrait Study of Charles Dickens based on the photograph by Jeremiah Gurney (New York City, 1867)

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Portrait Study of Charles Dickens

Moira Carlson

After the original by Jeremiah Gurney

2023 sketch based on an 1867-68 photograph

Pen-and-ink

8 ½ inches high by 6 ½ inches wide (21.5 cm by 16.3 cm)

Daily drawing from Moira Carlson, 13 June 2023.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Aphoristic Passages Mentioned in Carlson's Marginal Notes

"There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour." (1843) — A Christmas Carol (Stave III)
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." (1867) John Rokesmith in Our Mutual Friend (1864)
"A loving heart is the truest wisdom." (1849) — David Copperfield
"There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast." (1837) — Pickwick Papers
"There is a wisdom of the head, and . . . a wisdom of the heart." (1854) — Hard Times

Commentary: Charles Dickens in New York City, December 1867-23 April 1868

Two daguerrotype studies of Charles Dickens in New York City taken during his Second American Reading Tour by Jeremiah Gurney (1867-68).

Dickens left Liverpool on the steamer Cuba on 8 November 1867, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, just recently incorporated into the Dominion of Canada. His second port-of-call was Boston; arriving on 19 November, he gave his first reading at Tremont Hall on 2 December. Peevish and depressed, he was exhausted from his recent reading tours throughout the United Kingdom. On 7 December he arrived at New York, and on the 9th of December gave the first of eight consecutive readings at Steinway Hall. From 25 December through 3 January he was once again reading in New York, and being photographed by Jeremiah Gurney.

The Gurney images of fifty-five-year-old Dickens in New York capture this quality of being "used up." However, something more in his response to a visit to the great American metropolis after a twenty-five-year absence is missing from the Gurney images: his wonder at New York City's transformation into a rival to Paris. He saw "improvement in every direction" (Kaplan 519). Returning from Boston on 26 December 1867, he reported himself "extremely depressed and miserable" (Kaplan 520), but the crowds continued to lionize him. During his last readings in New York (13 through 22 April 1868), he fell ill. Looking into a mirror, he saw that he was getting very grey, and that he was losing hair. The Carlson study shows a much more positive Dickens, but his hair is indeed thinning.

Bibliography

Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens: A Biography. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990.

Charles Dickens: An Exhibition to Commemorate the Centenary of His Death. London: Victorian and Albert Museum, 1970. No. 86.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Kaplan, Fred. "Dickens (1867-1870): A Castle in the Other World." Dickens: A Biography. New York: William Morrow, 1988. Pp. 503-556.

Created 16 June 2023