Sir James Clark Ross

Inscriptionback to top

Incised (round left rim): CAPT. JAMES CLARKE ROSS RN

This portraitback to top

Other casts of this medallion are in the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, signed and dated '1843', listed by J. W. Goodison, Catalogue of Cambridge Portraits (1955), pp 185-6 (345), and in the Royal Geographical Society, London. A related marble medallion of 1844 is in the Linnean Society, London. The type was exhibited RA, 1844 (1344). Bernhard Smith's brother was a lieutenant on one of the ships of Ross' expedition to the Antarctic (information in a letter from the donor of 2 March 1892, NPG archives). The NPG medallion was presented at the same time as a companion medallion of Sir John Richardson (NPG 888). Hooker thought they were both done in 18, presumably the date when he purchased them; he described them as 'first-rate likenesses' (letter of 25 January 1892, NPG archives).

Provenanceback to top

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, presented by him, 1892.


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.

View all known portraits for Sir James Clark Ross