Mrs Thompson

The image of Mrs Thompson that appears in the daybooks is a variant of the pose that appears here. Rather than holding up the skirt of her riding habit, she has both hands folded on the corner of the back of the chair. The dog, however, has not moved an inch and its head is at exactly the same angle. In fact, the animal is a stuffed prop. It appears in at least fifteen other unconnected portraits around this date, and in all of them it looks exactly the same. Sometimes it's on a chair, and sometimes it's on the floor, but the angle of its head and the positioning of its body never change.

Photographed by Camille Silvy on 27 June 1865.