The Empty Chair

Thanks to a grant of £780,000, the Charles Dickens Museum in London has been able to buy the desk and chair used by Charles Dickens in his final home in Gad's Hill Place in Kent. They are shown in The Empty Chair (1870) a tribute by Sir Luke Fildes RA painted shortly after Dickens' death. This watercolour is now in the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia, USA. The desk and chair are on public display in the Charles Dickens Museum at 48 Doughty Street, his former London home (CLICK).