Study for Portrait of Emily Tennyson, 1862 (graphite & grey wash on cream wove paper)

Emily Sarah Tennyson (1813–96) was the wife of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and a creative talent in her own right In November 1862 Emily Tennyson recalled in her journal that she sat for this drawing ‘to surprise A’ – her husband, the Poet Laureate Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), who had on two previous occasions been painted by G.F. Watts. The small drawing is evidently only a working idea since the sitter’s face is not in full profile as in the finished painting, and her lace veil is barely visible. Yet, this sensitive portrait successfully conjures up a mood of poetic reverie. The final painting is now in the collection of the Tennyson Research Centre.