Beschreibung:

THACKERAY, William Makepeace (1811-1863). A pen-and-ink sketch of a court scene, signed ('W.M. Thackeray') lower right, 218 x 207mm , notes in the verso in a different hand, relating to parliamentary matters (slight wear at right margin with loss, affecting one figure, reinforced on verso).
THACKERAY, William Makepeace (1811-1863). A pen-and-ink sketch of a court scene, signed ('W.M. Thackeray') lower right, 218 x 207mm , notes in the verso in a different hand, relating to parliamentary matters (slight wear at right margin with loss, affecting one figure, reinforced on verso). The accused, standing in the dock is labelled 'J. Woolcomb', whilst the advocate addressing the judge, labelled 'C. Buller', is likely to represent Thackeray's friend, lawyer, journalist and radical politician Charles Buller (1806-1848). Having been called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1838, Buller took the sinecure office of judge avocate-general in 1846. Thackeray had joined him in 1832 in his campaign for a seat in Parliament from Cornwall, following the passage of the Reform Bill, and is thought to have based the character of Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair on Buller's illegimate daughter, Theresa Reviss. As a young man, Thackeray had hoped to embark upon a career as a painter, studying painting in Paris in from 1833 to 1834; however, to his disappointment, it became apparent that his talents lay rather in comic drawings than fine art.