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Michael Faraday

4 of 28 portraits of Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday, by Sir Thomas Brock; John Henry Foley, 1886, based on a work of 1877 -NPG 748 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Michael Faraday

by Sir Thomas Brock, after John Henry Foley
1886, based on a work of 1877
32 in. (813 mm) high
NPG 748

This portraitback to top

Foley's marble statue is in the Royal Institution, London, reproduced as a woodcut ILN, LXX (1877), 233. Brock's bust is not an exact replica of the head; he has given Faraday's face a more animated expression, and has altered the folds of the drapery. The bust was commissioned in May 1884, and finished in February 1886. Sir William Frederick Pollock who headed the Committee of Gentlemen (he did not disclose their identity or their motive - presumably admiration of Faraday) wrote (letter of 25 May 1884, NPG archives): 'the bust would represent him at a much later period (he died in 1867) & when the face & head had gained a grander development. Nor is the picture by Phillips, to my thinking, one which did justice to Faraday, even at the time when it was painted.' An earlier bust by Foley of 1871 is in the Royal Society, London.

Provenanceback to top

Commissioned and presented by a Committee of Gentlemen, 1886.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, 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.

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