Matthew Arnold

A carte-de-visite portrait of English poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby.

He was himself educated at Rugby, and then Balliol College, Oxford. After returning briefly to Rugby as an assistant master, he became an inspector of schools (1851-1886). He published two unsuccessful volumes of anonymous poetry, but two further publications under his own name in 1853 and 1855 led to his appointment as professor of poetry at Oxford. Arnold was the first to use the word ‘philistine’ in its present sense, in Culture and Anarchy (1869), his attack on the cultural values of the middle classes.

Photographed by Elliott and Fry of 55, Baker Street, London.

According to an inked inscription on the reverse of the mount, the complier of the album received the carte in May 1868.