National Portrait Gallery - Person

Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), Physician and poet

Sitter in 8 portraits
A physician and member of the Lunar Society, Darwin wrote The Botanic Garden (1791), a best-selling popular scientific work in rhyming couplets. Sociable, eccentric and inventive, his original ideas on evolution, propounded in his poem, 'Zoonomia', were superseded by those of his grandson, Charles Darwin.

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Erasmus Darwin

after Joseph Wright
oil on canvas, (1770)
On display in Room 13 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 88

Erasmus Darwin

by and published by John Raphael Smith, after Joseph Wright
mezzotint, published 1 May 1797
NPG D34686

'New morality; - or - the promis'd installment of the high-priest of the Theophilanthropes, with the homage of Leviathan and his suite'

by James Gillray, published by John Wright
etching, published 1 August 1798
NPG D13093

'New morality; - or - the promis'd installment of the high-priest of the Theophilanthropes, with the homage of Leviathan and his suite'

by James Gillray, published by John Wright
hand-coloured etching, published 1 August 1798
NPG D13094

Erasmus Darwin

by William Holl Sr, after J. Rawlinson, and by Thomas Milton, after Richard Corbould, published by Robert John Thornton
stipple engraving and etching, published 1 February 1803
NPG D34341

Erasmus Darwin

by William Holl Sr, after J. Rawlinson, and by Thomas Milton, after Richard Corbould, published by Robert John Thornton
stipple engraving and etching, published 1 February 1803
NPG D34688