Hand-addressed mailing envelope, 4.75 x 3, addressed by Dickens to "W. P. Frith, Esquire R. A., 7 Pembridge Villas, Bayswater, W.," and signed neatly in the lower left corner, "Charles Dickens." The envelope is postmarked in December 1869. Attractively double-matted with a portrait to an overall size of 10.5 x 16. In fine condition, with light soiling and a few small stains.
Artist William Powell Frith painted a portrait of Charles Dickens at the height of the novelist's fame in 1859. In the painting, Dickens is seated in his study in his house in Bloomsbury, and some of the first chapter of A Tale of Two Cities (published 1859) is shown on the desk in front of him. The picture delighted John Forster, Dickens's friend and biographer, who had commissioned the work, but Dickens himself was less enthusiastic about the way his expression had been rendered. Forster had arranged for a photograph of Dickens to be taken before the painting was started, but it was not a success, and Frith did not use it to help him paint the portrait.
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