Lot 28: CARLYLE, THOMAS (1795-1881, essayist and historian)

PORTRAIT BY ROBERT HERDMAN R.S.A., R.S.W. (1829-1888),
charcoal and pencil heightened with red chalk and white gouache on buff paper, head and shoulders, signed with his monogram and dated 22 April 1875 by Herdman, 13 x 9 in (33 x 22.9 cm).

Herdman left a record of his conversations with Carlyle, who stated that the portrait in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, for which this fine drawing is an exact study, was the best resemblance of him yet done: 'It seems a man who is in peaceful relation with, & fairly satisfied with his position in the Universe!'

In Richard Ormond, Victorian Portraits, a related drawing of 1875, perhaps the present work, is recorded as being in the collection of Mrs Dance.