Brief Description:
The most celebrated Victorian narrative painter exchanges palette for pen in this popular three-volume autobiography, first published in 1887-8.

Table of Contents:
Volume 1: 1. Early days; 2. My future destiny discussed; 3. My career determined; 4. The school of art; 5. The life school; 6. Practice in portrait-painting; 7. 'Posting' from Harrogate to London; 8. First attempts at subject-pictures; 9. My first success; 10. Elected an associate; 11. The Old English Merrymaking; 12. Dinner-party at Lord Northwick's; 13. On subjects; 14. Picture-seeing in Belgium and Holland; 15. Service of art in detection of crime; 16. The Coming of Age; 17. Subjects from Goldsmith, Smollett, and Molière; 18. The hanging committee; 19. Hanging reminiscences; 20. Ramsgate Sands; 21. The Derby Day; 22. Portrait of Charles Dickens; 23. Success of The Railway Station; 24. The Marriage of the Prince of Wales; 25. The great actors of my youth. Volume 2: 1. The Salon d'Or; 2. Rejected subjects; 3. The pious model; 4. Visit to Italy; 5. The bearded model; 6. The Road to Ruin; 7. The Fonthill story; 8. The Race for Wealth; 9. A mysterious sitter; 10. John Forster and the portrait of Charles Dickens; 11. Second visit to the Low Countries; 12. The doctor's story; 13. For Better, For Worse; 14. Models - thievish; 15. 'Old Masters'; 16. A successful dealer; 17. A strange adventure; 18. Men-servants; 19. The Private View; 20. Dr Doran; 21. My later professional work; 22. A strange purchase; 23. The crazy artist; 24. John Leech; 25. A ghost story; 26. The story of my portrait; 27. Jenny Lind, Mr Barnum, and others; 28. Lady artists; 29. People I have known. Volume 3: Introduction; 1. Great names and the value of them; 2. Prelude to correspondence; 3. Early correspondence; 4. Asylum experiences; 5. Anecdotes - various; 6. An over-true tale; 7. Scraps; 8. A Yorkshire blunder, and scraps continued; 9. Richard Dadd; 10. An old-fashioned patron; 11. Another dinner at Ivy Cottage; 12. Charles Dickens; 13. Sir Edwin Landseer; 14. George Augustus Sala; 15. John Leech; 16. Shirley Brooks; 17. Admiration; 18. On self-delusion and other matters; 19. Fashion in art; 20. A story of a snowy night; 21. English art and French influence; 22. Ignorance of art; 23. Oratory; 24. Supposititious pictures; 25. A variety of letters from various people; 26. Mrs Maxwell; 27. Book illustrators; 28. More people whom I have known; Index.