Gladstone in 1858: trim of figure, fierce of eye and smart of dress (in ‘Brougham’ trousers, white waistcoat and fancy cravat). In reality his career and not merely his tie was then at a loose end.
The fourth Earl of Aberdeen, the most elusive of all post-1832 Prime Ministers but to Gladstone ‘the man in public life of all others whom I have loved’.
Lord John Russell, from 1860 first Earl Russell, the quintessential Whig, whom Gladstone did not love but whom he placed, together with Peel (a high tribute) and Disraeli (a less high one) in a triptych of those with outstanding political courage.
Sidney Herbert, Gladstone’s friend and short-lived contemporary, a man who aroused his intense affection as did Aberdeen and Hope-Scott and no one else, but with whom he constantly disagreed in Cabinet.
Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, a close friend of Gladstone’s from the middle 1850s until her death in 1868 (painted by Winterhalter about 1850).
Lady with the Coronet of Jasmine
, the portrait of Maria Summerhayes, one of his ‘rescue’ cases, which Gladstone commissioned from William Dyce in 1859 and which today reposes in the Aberdeen Art Gallery.
Laura Thistlethwayte, former courtesan who became a proselytizing theosophist as well as a Grosvenor Square and Dorset lady of substance, with whom Gladstone was considerably infatuated during his first premiership.
Palmerston
Disraeli
Palmerston and Disraeli, were Gladstone’s only political rivals as post-1850 Victorian stars. He disapproved of them both but wisely although almost accidentally settled in 1859 for a reluctant partnership with Palmerston (who was twenty-five years his senior) and a symbiotic opposition to Disraeli. As a result he eventually outshone them both.
Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort towards the end of Albert’s life. While their marriage lasted (he died in 1861) she approved of Gladstone.
Afterwards, as in this 1890s picture, she did not.
Gladstone family photograph taken on the west side of Hawarden Castle circa 1868. Catherine Gladstone seated at the table in the centre; back row: Agnes Gladstone, W.E.G., Sir Stephen Glynne (looking very faintly askance at ‘the great man’) and Lucy Lyttelton (Cavendish); seated: unknown boy, Helen Gladstone, Willy Gladstone, Herbert Gladstone, Henry Gladstone, Lord Frederick Cavendish.
