Alfred, Lord Tennyson, at his desk at Aldworth, stroking ‘Karenina’, his Siberian Wolfhound

Wood engraving by Charles Roberts (active 1870-1898)

Published in the The Graphic, 1884

Signed within the plate

24 x 31 cm

Image reproduced in The Tennyson Album by Andrew Wheatcroft, pub. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980, p. 128

£150

As the author of the above publication notes, the picture shows two characteristic elements of Tennyson: his love of dogs, as he strokes ‘Karenina’, and books. Tennyson appeared to have a particular affection for large sighthounds - his deerhound ‘Lufra’ appears in an earlier illustration of Tennyson’s study at Farringford. Karenina, his Siberian Wolfhound, most famously features staring up at her master in his bronze statue by George Frederic Watts, situated in the grounds of Lincoln Cathedral. She was was a gift from the Russian imperial family, presented to the poet (around the date of the present picture) after a reading he gave to a group of royal visitors that included Alexandra, Princess of Wales, her sister Dagmar (Empress Maria Feodorovna) and Emperor Alexander III.