Frith painted this portrait at the height of the novelist's fame in 1859. Dickens is seated in his study in his house in Bloomsbury, and some of the first chapter of ' A Tale of Two Cities' (published 1859) is shown on the desk in front of him. The picture delighted John Forster, Dickens's friend and biographer, who had commissioned the work, but Dickens himself was less enthusiastic about the way his expression had been rendered. Forster had arranged for a photograph of Dickens to be taken before the painting was started, but it was not a success, and the artist Frith did not use it to help him paint the portrait.
<nowiki>Charles Dickens in his Study; Чарльз Диккенс в своём кабинете; pittura di William Powell Frith; William Powell Frith festménye; pintura de William Powell Frith; quadre de William Powell Frith; Gemälde von William Frith; pintura de William Powell Frith; painting by William Powell Frith; maleri af William Powell Frith; pictură de William Powell Frith; obraz William Powell Frith; målning av William Powell Frith; måleri av William Powell Frith; pintura de William Powell Frith; schilderij van William Powell Frith; tableau de William Powell Frith; pikturo da William Powell Frith; cuadro de William Powell Frith; painting by William Powell Frith; pintura de William Powell Frith; pentraĵo de William Powell Frith; maleri av William Powell Frith; pintura di William Powell Frith</nowiki>