A newly colourised photograph of Charles Dickens shows the author as we've never seen him before - wearing a snazzy waistcoat with a bit of a healthy tan.
The image, released by the Charles Dickens Museum, contrasts with the perception of the author as a severe Victorian figure.
It is the first of eight colourised images of Dickens, all of which will be shown at the museum when it reopens in an exhibition called Technicolour Dickens: The Living Image Of Charles Dickens.
In order to bring the images to life, researchers analysed the complexion and skin tone of two of his great-great grandsons, Gerald Dickens and Mark Dickens, and worked with experts on the fashion of the time.
“Seeing Dickens in colour reveals so much – You can see photographs where he clearly hasn’t run a comb through his hair for days, where his beard is all over the place or where he’s sweating after being made to stand in a hot room for hours on end," says photographer Oliver Clyde, who conducted the colourisation.
He said of the portrait: “You get to see him as more of a person instead of this almost fictional character.”
Museum curator Frankie Kubicki said that the portrait now helps to give "a hint of what he was like."
“There’s a real sparkle of vitality, which is lost in the black and white, and a glint in his eyes and a kind of very playful nature, which is really heightened by the colour.”
The forthcoming exhibition, which will be open to the public when the easing of lockdown allows, will explore how Dickens defined, changed and controlled his public image.
The museum says that nearly all of its income streams have been cut off with closure and that it needs £30,000-a-month to cover the basic costs of caring for Dickens’ house and the collection that it holds.
Donations towards the museum's future can be made at justgiving.com/campaign/DickensMuseumAppeal.
Additional reporting by Press Association
