Sir Isaac Newton
1 portrait matching these criteria:
- npg number matching '558'
Sir Isaac Newton
studio of Enoch Seeman
oil on canvas, circa 1726
50 in. x 58 1/4 in. (1270 mm x 1480 mm)
Transferred from British Museum, 1879
Primary Collection
NPG 558
Sitter
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Mathematical scientist. Sitter associated with 37 portraits.
Artist
Enoch Seeman (1694-1744), Painter. Artist associated with 17 portraits, Sitter in 2 portraits.
This Portrait
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 Mathematica (1687) and the Optics (1704), and was knighted in 1705. Newton, who was President of the Royal Society from 1703 until his death, is seen in this portrait by Vanderbank seated at a table. Before him is a celestial globe and an open volume, probably the third edition of his Principia Mathematica.
Linked Publications
Gibson, Robin, Treasures from the National Portrait Gallery, 1996, p. 51
Hackmann, W.D., Apples and Atoms: Portraits of Scientists from Newton to Rutherford, 1986, p. 24
Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 458
Subjects & Themes
