About this artwork
Doctor, journalist, railway manager and biographer, Samuel Smiles is best known for his enthusiasm for self-improvement. His celebrated book, Self-Help, was published in 1859. A collection of short biographies of great achievers, Self-Help became a standard school prize in Victorian Britain and, for later generations, a symbol of that era's optimistic values.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Sir George Reid (1841 - 1913) Scottish
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title:Samuel Smiles, 1812 - 1904. Author and reformer
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date created:1891
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materials:Oil on canvas
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measurements:34.30 x 24.80 cm; Framed: 57.50 x 48.00 x 5.00 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Bequeathed by J.M. Gray 1894
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accession number:PG 631
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gallery:
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depicted:
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subject:
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
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Sir George Reid
Sir George Reid
Reid was born in Aberdeen and worked first as a lithographer before moving to Edinburgh in 1862 to study at the Trustees' Academy. In 1866, supported by the Aberdeen collector, John Forbes White, he went to Holland to study under the landscape and genre painter, Gerrit Mollinger. He became a close...
