Charles Dickens Letter Triggers Hunt for Mystery Molière Painting

The discovery of a previously unknown letter by Charles Dickens has set off a hunt for a valuable missing painting the author helped to create.

In a handwritten note in schoolboy French, Dickens describes how an artist friend is working on a dramatic depiction of the death of the playwright Molière but wishes to have more information to make the work as accurate as possible.

Although Dickens does not name the artist, it is likely to have been one of his friends Charles Robert Leslie and William Powell Frith, two Victorian narrative painters who depicted other aspects of the French playwright’s work. Read more…