The Empty Chair by Sir Samuel Luke Fildes, R. A. (1844-1927). Watercolour on paper. 1870. Collection: The Free Library of Philadelphia. Thanks to Katharine Chandler, Reference Librarian of the Rare Book Room at the Free Library, for pointing out that her institution possesses the original watercolour, and for providing the URL of the image.
This slightly different version of the tribute to Charles Dickens, in which the chair appears at a slightly different angle, appeared in The Graphic in the issue of 9 June 1870. According to David Thomson, Dickens's sudden death on 9 June 1870, changed everything about Fildes' plans for illustrating the second half of The Mystery of Edwin Drood]. But (and here Thomson quotes from Fildes himself), the family requested him "to fulfil the desire of the great writer," and asked him after the funeral to come and stay with them, "and it was then, while in the house of mourning, that he "conceived the idea of 'The Empty Chair,' and at once got [his] colours from London, and, with their permission, made the water-colour drawing a very faithful record of his library; and stayed with them until they left the house prior to the sale" (28).
Fildes' drawing of the Windsor chair in Dickens's study (1870). Note the standard features of this traditional piece of furniture: "its low back, curved backrest, and gently slanting legs" (Choe 96).
Although Jian Choe refers to the picture of the vacant chair as "primarily an obituary image" (86), that critic acknowledges that its translation into a woodcut for The Graphic for the Christmas number of 1870 "can be read as a surrogate portrait with the chair emblematizing the absent sitter's identity and creative spirit" (87). Choe notes that by the beginning of the nineteenth century the chair in art and literature was a well-established motif which Dickens and Phiz, for example, had used to wind up Master Humphrey's Clock in the 4 December 1841 woodcut The Deserted Chamber. "It presents an empty room left behind after the passing of the eponymous character" (Choe 93).
The Empty Chair, woodcut by Sir Samuel Luke Fildes, R. A. (1844-1927). Adapted from Fildes' watercolour on paper. The Graphic, Christmas 1870. Source: Thomson 27.
So great was the appeal of the drawing published in the Christmas 1870 number of The Graphic that its sales were prodigious.
Related Material
- Oil painting of Dickens in his chair by William Frith (1859)
- Dickens's Study at Gadshill
- Dickens's Writing Desk at the Chalet
- The Chalet in the Shrubbery at Gadshill
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Choe, Jian. "Luke Fildes' The Empty Chair: Innovation and Influence." Dickens Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 1 (March 2025): 86-105.
Frith, William Powell. Charles Dickens in His Study. 1859. Victoria and Albert Museum. Web. 19 April 2025.
Orestano, Francesca. "The Empty Chair: Nostalgia, Celebrty, Heritage." Dickens Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 1 (March 2025), 71-85.
Thomson, David Croal. The Art Annual, 1895: The Life and Work of Luke Fildes, R. A. With numerous illustrations. London: The Art Journal Office (294, City Road, and 26, Ivy Lane), Christmas 1895.
Created 27 August 2012
Last modified 19 April 2025