Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Mathematical scientist

Sitter associated with 45 portraits
An immensely influential mathematical scientist, in one year (1665-6), when driven from Cambridge by plague, Newton formulated a series of important theories concerning light, colour, calculus and the 'universal law of gravitation'. According to tradition, he developed the latter theory after seeing an apple fall from a tree. He published Principia (1687) and the Opticks (1704), and was knighted in 1705. Newton was President of the Royal Society from 1703 until his death.