Sir Tim Berners-Lee
1 portrait
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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Sir Tim Berners-Lee
by Sean Henry
painted bronze, 2015
74 3/4 in. x 22 7/8 in. (1900 mm x 580 mm) overall (figure and base)
Commissioned; made possible by J.P. Morgan through the Fund for New Commissions, 2014
Primary Collection
NPG 6996
On display in Room 28 on Floor 2 at the National Portrait Gallery
Sitterback to top
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee (1955-), Inventor of the World Wide Web and Director of the World Wide Web Consortium. Sitter in 4 portraits.
This portraitback to top
Cast in bronze and painted, the sculpture depicts Berners-Lee standing and is two-thirds life-size, displayed on a plinth. Henry spent two days with Berners-Lee in Boston, observing him at work and visiting him at home. The pose for the portrait is taken from a number of photographs Henry took of his sitter walking outside, carrying the indispensible leather rucksack in which he keeps his laptop. Henry was interested in the paradox inherent in the impact of Berners-Lee’s invention and his self-effacing demeanour. Henry’s sculpted figures are usually anonymous, and in this portrait he has retained the idea of his subject as ‘everyman’, through the casual pose and his simply dressed appearance. The depiction of his sitter is resolutely contemporary, but the use of bronze has a timeless and permanent quality appropriate for a sitter with such a significant legacy.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Edited by Rab MacGibbon and Tanya Bentley, Icons and Identities, 2021, p. 56
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