Charles Dickens Museum to reopen with technicolour portraits of author 'as we have never seen before'

Charles Dickens has been brought to life in a series of striking new images going on show in a flagship exhibition.

Technicolour Dickens: The Living Image of Charles Dickens begins this Saturday when the museum in Bloomsbury reopens after a four-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The centrepiece of the show is a set of new colour portraits, created from eight historic photographs of the author taken from the museum’s collection.

The pictures were then colourised by London-based portrait and still life photographer Oliver Clyde. The artist also studied the complexion and skin tone of Dickens’s great-great grandsons, Gerald Dickens and Mark Dickens, to make sure the vivid representations are as accurate as possible.

The Museum researched the details of each original portrait session, the clothes and accessories chosen by Dickens for each and the objects included in the original photographs - information about which is included in the exhibit.

The show will also include a number of other images of Dickens, from the earliest painting of the author at the age of 18, to the posthumous drawing by John Everett Millais, which was created the day after Dickens’s death in 1870.

It will feature Dickens’s clothing, personal items and descriptions by those who knew him. A black silk grosgrain waistcoat made in 1860 and worn by Dickens, which has not been on public display for over 100 years, will also be available to view.

Frankie Kubicki, curator at the Charles Dickens Museum, said: “We aim to present an image of Dickens that the public have never seen before.”

Cindy Sughrue, the museum’s director, added: “We are extremely pleased to be opening the Museum once again, especially as Technicolour Dickens will begin its run on the same day. Dickens was a man of the people, a man of the world, and primarily a man of London - a city that he campaigned for, supported and immortalised. We hope that Londoners will support the legacy of one of its most famous sons by visiting his home and ensuring that it is preserved for generations to come.”

The Charles Dickens Museum is at 48 Doughty Street, the London residence where Dickens wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, dickensmuseum.com