Isaac Newton gallery

The 1689 Kneller Portrait

This is the earliest portrait of Sir Isaac Newton to survive. It was painted in 1689 when Newton was in London as a member of the Convention Parliament, following the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. The artist was Godfrey Kneller, perhaps the greatest portrait painter of his day.

Newton was 46 years old and Principia had been published two years previously. It represents Newton "at the height of his powers."

Many people (especially me) consider this to be by far the "best" portrait of Newton. Use the above links to decide for yourself.

The portrait is on display at Farleigh House, the seat of the Earl of Portsmouth.

The 1702 Kneller Portrait

The painting itself is in the National Portrait Gallery and is in pride of place on their Room 5 page. (Newtonia also has a short note on the NPG and it is visited on the central London walk.)

Other portraits

The following images of portraits and sculptures are grouped by site and contain several duplications.

• the 1689 Kneller included on the cover of Richard Westfall's Life of Isaac Newton
• 1689 Kneller and a German Newton stamp from Pictures of Physicists at Frankfurt
• 1726 portrait by Enoch Seeman in the entry for Newton at the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
• The 1725 Vanderbank from Richard Westfall's biographical sketch at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge (The image may be from Microsoft Encarta. Despite the ``Copyright Microsoft'' notice, the original is owned by Trinity College, Cambridge.) Also the head of the 1689 Kneller.
• c1726 Vanderbank formerly owned by Caltech, but stolen in 1979. There is a web page about this. See also a photograph of Robert Millikan looking at the portrait (spot which one is the great physicist...)
• 1726 portrait by Enoch Seeman from Newton's life at Hong Kong Baptist University
• the 1689 Kneller and 1726 portrait by Enoch Seeman at Harry Nelson's Images of Physicists
• A copy of the 1725 Trinity portrait, attributed to Vanderbank from Brona, Helbing, and Majdanski's page on atomism.
• Apotheosis of Sir Isaac Newton, engraved by George Bickham, senior, 1732.
• Another engraving of Newton at the Alchemy Virtual Library
• The British Library has a prominent sculpture of Newton based of a picture by William Blake, who was famous for his dislike of Newton. (Many scientists found this choice of sculpture to be symptomatic of the British intellectual establishment's patronising attitude to Science.)
• A page about the small dining room of Number 10 Downing Street, including a photograph of a bust of Newton.
• A copy of Newton's deathmask in the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh archives

There is a page with three portraits at the ISAAC site.