Thomas Burnet

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed round the upper edge: THO.BURNET AUCTOR THEORIAE TELLURIS ETC. AD VIVUM PINXIT ROMAE FERDINAND 1675.

This portraitback to top

The inscription was evidently added (the Telluris theoria was first published in 1681) but is nevertheless early. NPG 526 must have been painted while Burnet was travelling as tutor with Lord Wiltshire in Rome. Attributed to Ferdinand Elle until Piper proposed Voet in 1961, [1] an attribution now generally accepted and supported by the inscription and by Sir Henry Ellis, List of Portraits suspended on the Walls of the Eastern Zoological Gallery, British Museum, 1843.

Footnotesback to top

1) D. T. Piper, Burl. Mag., CIII, 1961, p 106 n12.

Referenceback to top

Ellis 1843
Sir Henry Ellis, List of Portraits suspended on the Walls of the Eastern Zoological Gallery, British Museum, no.60 as ‘Ad vivum pinxit Romae Ferdinand, 1675. Bequeathed by Matthew Waters, Esq. 1788’.

Petrucci 2005
F. Petrucci, Ferdinand Voet, 2005, p 262, no.255.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 47.

Provenanceback to top

Bequeathed by Matthew Waters to the British Museum 1788; transferred to the NPG 1879.

Exhibitionsback to top

Exhibitions and Loans: British Museum 1984–.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for Thomas Burnet