Lot 614

Description

Thomas Woolner, plaster cast portrait medallion (23.5cm) of Thomas Carlyle in glazed round wooden frame (34.5cm), signed and dated 1855. Extremely fine.

Ex L.R.Smith Collection. Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was a Scottish essayist and historian. His influential writings of the Victoria era are credited with having a formative stimulus of both socialism and fascism. Many of Carlyle's texts were deeply critical of social decay brought by the 'dismal science' of laissez-faire economics. His later works isolated him from his liberal contemporaries and the fascist connection led to him being somewhat discredited. Nonetheless, his 1831 work Sartus Restartus is today recognised as a unique masterpiece. Carlyle's biographer, J.A.Frounde, remarked of this portrait as being 'by far the best likeness of him in his days of strength'. As a portrait, the piece is important not only due to Carlyle's literary status but also his pivotal role in the opening of the National Portrait Gallery in London, 1856.