Thomas Carlyle is an unfinished portrait of the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher of the same name painted by English Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais in 1877.

Millais, who was said to boast of making £30,000 a year, taking four months' holiday, used to tell a story of Carlyle during those sittings.

The earliest mention of the portrait comes from Carlyle's friend William Allingham, who recorded in his Diary on 11 April 1877: "Millais is to paint him.

On 29 May, Carlyle wrote to his brother that "Millais seems to be in a state of almost frenzy about finishing with the extremest perfection his surprising and difficult task; evidently a worthy man.

"[5] It may have been one Mrs. Anstruther, a friend of Carlyle's who visited Millais' home to see the portrait, telling him that it was "merely the mask; no soul, no spirit behind.

"[6] In a memorandum dated 30 November 1894, National Portrait Gallery trustee George Scharf recalled a story told to him by George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle:[7] "A lady, unknown, came with Millais while he was painting Carlyle & looking at the picture said why you have not painted him as a philosopher or sage but as a rough - shire peasant.

[8] Carlyle commented, "The picture does not please many, nor, in fact, myself altogether, but it is surely strikingly like in every feature, and the fundamental condition was that Millais should paint what he was able to see.

"[7] In 1904, G. K. Chesterton compared it unfavourably to an earlier portrait by George Frederic Watts, in which Carlyle said he had been "made to look like a mad labourer.

"[14][15] The damaged canvas remained on public view for the rest of the day, until Mr F. Haines, a restorer, noticed the work at five o'clock, and it was removed.

At her trial, Hunt declared, "This picture will be of added value and of great historical importance because it has been honoured by the attention of a Militant."