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| Ary Scheffer Portrait of Mrs Robert Hollond 1851 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
"Mrs. Hollond, born Ellen Julia Teed, was the wife of the pioneering balloonist and MP Robert Hollond. She was a writer and philanthropist who lived part of each year in Paris, where she held a salon that attracted intellectuals of a progressive cast of mind. Ary Scheffer was a painter who appealed to Mrs. Hollond and her circle, and in 1851 he painted this carefully pared-down portrait of her. Mrs. Hollond is presented with studied simplicity – colours, setting, distracting clothing and jewellery are kept to a minimum to stress the soulfulness of her expression. This gives the picture a timeless feel: Mrs. Hollond may be a Victorian woman with liberal sympathies but she could also be a Roman matron or a figure from the Bible."
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| James Curnock The Sisters Anne and Henrietta Maria Shaw 1854 oil on canvas Bristol Museum and Art Gallery |
"This painting is probably James Curnock's masterpiece. The routine work of a portrait painter was often seen as drudgery, but the daughters of Bristol's then Lord Mayor evidently charmed him and made a pleasant change from recording the features of local worthies."
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| John Brett Portrait of Mrs Coventry Patmore ca. 1856 oil on card Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
"Coventry Patmore was an influential friend of the early Pre-Raphaelites and was instrumental in introducing them to their greatest champion, John Ruskin. He married Emily Augusta Andrews in 1847. Brett's portrait of Mrs. Patmore, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856, followed an earlier and less successful portrait by Millais of 1851."
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| Frederick Sandys Vivien 1863 oil on canvas Manchester Art Gallery |
"The model was Sandys' gypsy lover Keomi. She is portrayed as Vivien, the sensual enchantress who seduced Merlin in Tennyson's Idylls of the King (1859)."
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| George Frederic Watts Portrait of Ellen Terry ca. 1864-65 oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, London |
"Born in Coventry in 1847, where her actor parents were on tour, Ellen Terry was one of eleven siblings. She won fame as a child, first appearing on stage in 1856 with Charles Kean. Married the painter G.F. Watts in 1864, but separated within a year. Terry had two children by the architect Edward Godwin – Edith Craig and Edward Gordon Craig. Returned to the stage in 1872 to establish herself as a leading actress with Bancroft's and John Hare's company. She performed her most memorable roles under the management of Henry Irving with whom she undertook provincial tours and toured America seven times."
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| George Frederic Watts Portrait of Julia Stephen ca. 1870 oil on canvas Charleston House, Lewes, Sussex |
"Julia Prinsep Stephen, née Jackson. The niece and goddaughter of Julia Margaret Cameron and, like her, a member of the artistic circle which gathered at Little Holland House. She was a renowned beauty and a favourite of the Pre-Raphaelites, sitting for Burne-Jones as well as G.F. Watts and her godmother. From her second marriage to the historian Leslie Stephen she was the mother of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell."
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| Philip Hermogenes Calderon Margaret 1876 oil on canvas Manchester Art Gallery |
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| John Everett Millais Portrait of Louise Jane Jopling 1879 oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, London |
"Louise Jopling was one of the most important British women painters of the later 19th century as well as a central figure in artistic and literary circles of the period. Millais's painting of her is widely acknowledged as being amongst his greatest portraits – James McNeill Whistler, who also painted Jopling, called it "a superb portrait" and "a great work." It was completed in five sittings in the summer of 1879 and was exhibited to critical acclaim at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1880."
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| Lawrence Alma-Tadema Portrait of Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Stanhope, Duchess of Cleveland 1883 oil on canvas Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham |
"Lady Stanhope, only daughter of the 4th Earl of Stanhope, was widely regarded as the most beautiful woman at court at the time of Queen Victoria's accession in 1837. She served as a Maid of Honour at Victoria's coronation and as a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Albert. In July 1843 she met Archibald Primrose, Lord Dalmeny, at a ball at Buckingham Palace and they were married three months later. Following Lord Dalmeny's death in 1850, she married Sir Harry George Vane Powlett, 4th Duke of Cleveland, in 1854."
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| John Bailey Portrait Bust of Queen Victoria 1855 marble Government Art Collection, London |
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| James Sant Portrait of Adelina Patti ca. 1886 oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, London |
"Celebrated soprano, the daughter of two Italian singers, Madame Patti first sang at a concert in 1850, and made her operatic debut as Lucia in 1859. Thereafter she became an international opera star and enjoyed unparalleled popularity in a wide variety of roles, being admired both for her resonant singing voice and her dramatic talent. A particular favourite in Britain, she ultimately retired to a house in Wales."
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| Hubert von Herkomer Portrait of Emilia Francis née Strong, Lady Dilke 1887 oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, London |
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| Henry Scott Tuke The Misses Santley 1888 oil on canvas York City Art Gallery |
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| William Carter Portrait of Mrs John Webster 1888 oil on canvas Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland |
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| Robert Brough Portrait of Mrs Nicol of Roscobie 1897 oil on canvas Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland |