A group of well-known art critics in London in the 1800s involved themselves and their clients with famous artists and writers of the time, including William Powell Frith, Charles Dickens, John Brett, Philip Calderon, Arthur Hughes, and Gustave Moreau. The document also provides biographical information about an artist born in 1819 in North Yorkshire who moved to London in 1835, attended the Royal Academy of Arts, and became Queen Victoria's favorite painter, being best known for his portrait of Charles Dickens. He was also known for paintings of apples and strawberries.