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Newton's Iconic Portrait Commissioned by Newton
Himself Two Years After the Publication of his
Principia, 1687
"The most impressive of all the Newton portraits" -
Gjertsen, The Newton Handbook, 1986
Sir Geoffrey Kneller, Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton
at 47 years old, half length, wearing a brown
cloak, leaning on a ledge, ca. 1689.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Dimensions: [89.5 x 68.5 cm/35 1/4 x 27 inches]
Frame: Original English giltwood, some chips and
wear.
Condition: Excellent, skillfully lined in the back.
Provenance:
(1)
VISCOUNTS GALWAY, of Serlby Hall,
Nottinghamshire, listed as purchased in 1725,
described in article in 1867; Sold Christie's
March 1979, lot 124;
(2)
CHRISTOPHER SELMES, capitalist, art-
collector, of Cheyne Walk and Lyegrove House
nr Badminton; his sale, Christies, 26
September 1988, lot 332;
(3)
VERNE L. ROBERTS (1939-1007), engineer,
inventor, book-collector (Bibliotecha
mechanics 1991) of North California.
(4)
Private collector
Exhibited:
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London, Chesterfield House, "Marlborough and the
Reign of Queen Anne," March, 1934, no. 226, lent by
Viscounts Galway
THE FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT PORTRAIT OF SIR ISAAC
NEWTON. This portrait is known as the "Portsmouth"
type, depicting him at the peak of his fame two
years after the publication of his monumental work
Principia Mathematica, London, 1687. This portrait
is chronologically the closest to the period of
intense discovery that was to secure his fame. For
a supposedly secretive and cautious man, it is
surprising that Sir Isaac Newton had himself
painted as often as he did. There exist at least
seventeen different portrait types, of which only
seven were painted for known purposes; two for book
illustrations, two for the Royal Society and three
commissioned by others.
According to Fara's article on this portrait,
"Newton's biographers maintain that he shunned fame
and was uninterested in art. This might be the
appropriate behavior for a reticent genius, but the
visual evidence suggests that Newton actively
fashioned his public persona. The sheer number of
images testifies to his concern - over 20 busts and
portraits, several of them paid for by Newton
himself. He put some of them on display in his
London home, including an expensive ivory plaque in
the dining room, where guests could admire the good
taste that only comes with wealth. To impress the
international community of natural philosophers, he
donated a large portrait to the Royal Society,
labeling it prominently in gold letters - "Sir
Isaac Newton, President.""
"In 1689, when Newton visited Kneller's London
studio, he was an obscure Cambridge scholar, author
of an esoteric book incomprehensible to all but a
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few learned mathematicians. Drawing on 17th-century
artistic conventions for depicting religious
anchorites, Kneller produced a picture of a
melancholy recluse enclosed in a windowless cell-
like study and driven to the verge of illness
through obsessive reading. Promoters of science
have always appreciated the power of pictures, and
one of the most famous is Godfrey Kneller's Newton,
years after the Principia was first published.
All the signs of a dedicated solitary scholar are
there--the unkempt gray hair, the thin pale face,
the delicate hands, and the dark robes. Modern
viewers immediately recognize the world's greatest
scientific genius, and some even liken this Newton
to Christ Himself." - Fara
"Kneller's 1689 Newton became increasingly popular,
initially in black and white and more recently in
the full original colors. Gradually, it became the
iconic image of a scientific genius." - Patricia
Fara, "Perceptions of Science: Face values: How
Portraits Win Friends and Influence People, Essays
on Science and Society, Science, 7 February, 2003
Gale Christianson wrote of this portrait, "Two
years after the publication of the Principia in
1687, Newton commissioned a portrait from the most
fashionable painter of the day, Godfrey Kneller
(1646-1723). After twenty years at Trinity College,
Newton was emerging as both a Cambridge and a
London celebrity, his status much enhanced by the
Principia as well as by involvement with the Royal
Society, [and] opposition to the interference of
King James II (1633-1701) in Cambridge University
affairs, followed by his election as MP for the
university. It was newton's desire to assert his
consequence that led him to Kneller's studio. The
portrait was, for 150 years, less well known than
other works by Kneller, but it is now reproduced...
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"The 1689 Kneller portrait gives us an apparently
uncluttered Newton: plainly dressed, with a full
head of his own hair, intense and abstracted, an
uncompromising, rigorous and unworldly thinker - an