4 OF 22

Sir Richard Owen

4 of 22 portraits on display in Room 27 at the National Portrait Gallery

Sir Richard Owen

by Henry William Pickersgill
oil on canvas, circa 1845
56 1/4 in. x 44 in. (1429 mm x 1118 mm)
Given by the sitter's daughter-in-law, Mrs Emily Owen, 1893
Primary Collection
NPG 938

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Sitterback to top

Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892), Naturalist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist. Sitter in 29 portraits.

Artistback to top

Henry William Pickersgill (1782-1875), Portrait painter. Artist associated with 106 portraits, Sitter in 7 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Owen is shown with a white nautilus shell with brown markings: the glass jar contains the mollusc itself. Owen published a Memoir of the Pearly Nautilus in 1832.

Related worksback to top

NPG D39478: Sir Richard Owen (source portrait)
NPG D39479: Sir Richard Owen (source portrait)

Linked publicationsback to top

I-Spy National Portrait Gallery, 2010, p. 38
Hackmann, W.D., Apples and Atoms: Portraits of Scientists from Newton to Rutherford, 1986, p. 52
Ormond, Richard, Early Victorian Portraits, 1973, p. 352
Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 473