ABSTRACT
Henry Fothergill Chorley wanted to send Charles Dickens a gift, a painting, but did not know the best route to send it. Chorley’s obituary outlined Dickens’s literary career as ‘possibly the most original English writer of English domestic fiction who has ever been seen’. By 1 July, Chorley had taken a fancy to the Holbein proposal, though he was a little nervous about doing anything under pressure. On 4 April 1871, Chorley gave Bentley an update, and distanced himself further from any involvement, even peripherally, with the Holbein project. Chorley’s insistence on Hector Berlioz’s lack of integrity as a critic was central to his basically unsympathetic reaction to the man. Chorley’s life’s work, accomplished industriously though sometimes despairingly, was over. In his depressed moods, he had considered himself a failure as an artist and as a human being. His books on music and musicians were not always appreciated by his contemporaries, but they are of permanent value.
