Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin

Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin

by Maggi Hambling
oil on canvas, 1985
36 3/4 in. x 30 in. (932 mm x 760 mm)
Commissioned, 1985
Primary Collection
NPG 5797

Sitter

Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994), Chemist and crystallographer. Sitter in 15 portraits.

Artist

Maggi Hambling (1945-), Painter. Artist of 8 portraits, Sitter in 13 portraits.

This Portrait

Painted in Hodgkin's study at home in Warwickshire, a structural model of the four molecules of insulin stands in the foreground. The artist presents Hodgkin immersed in her work. Two pairs of hands convey energy and activity. Their appearance also refers to the subject's acute arthritis, contracted when she was 28.

Linked Publications

Sound Guide
The National Portrait Gallery, 1997, p. 221
Gibson, Robin; Clerk, Honor, 20th Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery Collection, 1993, p. 26
Hackmann, W.D., Apples and Atoms: Portraits of Scientists from Newton to Rutherford, 1986, p. 83
Hart-Davis, Adam, Chain Reactions, 2000, p. 181
Jordanova, Ludmilla, Defining Features: Scientific and Medical Portraits 1660-2000, 2000 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 14 April - 17 September 2000), p. 154
Saumarez Smith, Charles, The National Portrait Gallery: an illustrated guide, 2000, p. 221
Saumarez Smith, Charles, The National Portrait Gallery, 1997, p. 221
Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 306

Subjects & Themes

Commissions - Paintings and Drawings
Contemporary tour
Eminent women tour
Eyeglasses and spectacles
Reading
Scientific discovery tour
Writing