Dickens' Dream - Robert W. Buss
Robert W. Buss (1804-1875)
Robert William Buss was hired by Dickens' publishers, Chapman and Hall, to provide two illustrations for Pickwick after the original illustrator, Robert Seymour, committed suicide. The publishers were disappointed with the illustrations provided by Buss (Kitton, 1899, p. 51) and the job went to Hablot Browne. Buss, however, remained a lifelong admirer of Dickens and produced several painting celebrating the author's work. The watercolor, Dickens' Dream, showing the author surrounded by the characters he created, was done after Dickens death in 1870. Buss himself did not live to complete the painting. The painting is now in the Charles Dickens Museum, London (Schlicke, 1999, p. 64-65).
