DH1177, 2023.61

Label

Dickens's daughter Kate was probably quite ill when this portrait was made in 1865. Her first husband, Charles Collins (brother of Wilkie Collins), was very sick and they could not afford a nurse - Kate had to look after him herself until his death in 1873. The artist, Marcus Stone, was the son of Dickens's friend and illustrator Frank Stone. Frank died suddenly in 1859 and Dickens took Marcus into his family and later commissioned him to illustrate his stories like his father had. Marcus and Kate were friends and both accomplished artists who exhibited at the Royal Academy.