This remarkable photographic exhibition was one for enthusiasts of the Victorian era – with a focus on the people who made this period great.

From artists and photographers to politicians, scientists and philosophers, the Victorian era certainly wasn’t lacking in great figures.

This exhibition comprised more than 150 Victorian photographs, some extremely rare and many being shown for the first time. They were selected from a large collection (~4500 images), which was amassed by the late Jeremy Maas and recently acquired by Rob Dickins CBE for presentation to the Watts Gallery of which Dickins is a Trustee. This selection brought visitors face to face not only with famous Victorian artists and photographers but also with their homes, studios, models and families. Those featured in the photographs included:

• William Powell Frith
• George Frederic Watts
• Edward Burne-Jones
• William Holman Hunt
• Frederic Lord Leighton
• John Everett Millais
• William Morris
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• John Ruskin
• Frederick Hollyer
• Julia Margaret Cameron
• Lewis Carroll

Politicians, scientists, writers, thinkers and actors were also portrayed, including Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Darwin, Thomas Carlyle, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Ellen Terry and Dorothy Dene. Excitingly, the exhibition even featured images of royalty, including a rare signed photograph of Queen Victoria.

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Miss Ellen Terry as "Juliet"; The Misses Dene. © The Watts Gallery