Georgina Hogarth often expressed to her sense of affectionate care and devotion in her home – never more strongly than within the last twelve months. One day in the same year, William Makepeace Thackeray asserted that Dickens's separation from Catherine was due to a liaison with an actress, Ellen Ternan, rather than with Georgina Hogarth as had been put to him. This remark coming to Dickens' attention, Dickens was so infuriated that it almost put an end to the Dickens-Thackeray friendship. With rumours that he and Georgina Hogarth were having an affair circulating, Dickens family history allegedly had it that a doctor's
Hogarth Painting the Comic Muse motto: "my picture was my stage and men and women my actors", as the Comic Muse was said to provide inspiration for playwrights. Seated in front of his easel, palette in hand, Hogarth eagerly works at his painting; Hogarth expressly wanted a self-portrait in which he was depicted in the middle of painting a piece, rather than in a static pose. Leaning against the right leg of the easel is Hogarth's "The Analysis of Beauty", a text which was written to complement this particular piece. X-ray analysis shows that the painting originally had a small dog relieving himself on a