'A man of ‘unflagging zeal and industry’: Sir George Scharf as an emerging professional within the nineteenth-century museum world

Abstract

Between his appointment as first secretary (and later director) of the National Portrait Gallery in 1857 and his retirement, just a few weeks before his death in 1895, George Scharf worked tirelessly to build a collection of authentic portraits with which to articulate a narrative of British history. He was also responsible for maintaining, displaying, interpreting and researching the early collection. This article focuses in particular upon Scharf’s distinctly professional approach to portraiture research and considers his contribution to wider developments in art historical scholarship and its methodology over the course of his career. It also seeks to situate Scharf within a network of likeminded individuals – arguably a first wave of emerging museum professionals – and contends that these figures were collectively engaged in carving out a model for proficient art museum practice in Britain, during the second half of the nineteenth century