Framed Chromolithograph by APE (Carlo Pellegrini) picturing the stage actor and impresario Henry Irving.

Born into humble circumstances in the West Country, Irving went on to establish himself as a giant of the West End. During his long residence at the Lyceum, beginning with his production of The Bells in 1871, he cemented his own and his theatre company's position as the keeper and type of the English classical theatrical tradition. Irving would later became the model for Bram Stoker's Dracula and was the first actor to be conferred the honour of Knighthood.

Irving died on stage in 1905 after giving the final lines of Beckett by Alfred Lord Tennyson ''Into thy hands, O Lord, into thy hands". His ashes are interred in Westminster Abbey, the first cremation prior to internment permitted at the Abbey.