Early Stuart Portraits Catalogue
William Harvey (1578-1657), Physician, discovered the circulation of the blood
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
The most reliable portraits of Harvey appear to be
c.1627
NPG 5115.
c.1650
Attributed to Peter Lely c.1650 at Weston Park.
c.1651
Etching by Richard Gaywood.
c.1653
Unattributed portrait with the Royal College of Physicians.
c.1657
Wilhelm von Bemmel in the Hunterian Collection, Glasgow.
Marble bust by Edward Marshall in Hempstead church, Essex.
A comprehensive survey, listing many later, dependent images, was made by the late Sir Geoffrey Keynes (The Portraiture of William Harvey, 1949 (1st ed.), 1985 (2nd ed.)). The following list is slightly less inclusive, but is heavily indebted to Keynes’s work.
c.1627
Painting attributed to Daniel Mytens, see NPG 5115.
c.1650
Attributed to Peter Lely, half-length. Weston Park.
Possibly the Dr Harvey in Lely’s sale, April 1682 - a copy ‘Dr Harvey’ (see Burl. Mag., LXXXIII, 1943, p 188), bt. Lord Newport (later 1st Earl of Bradford); an unattributed portrait of Harvey was listed at Weston in 1735 (MS inventory, copy in NPG archive) and later with the 2nd Earl of Bradford at Twickenham in 1714 (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XVIII, 1930, p 31).
Versions include:
Royal Society, inscribed with name and, below: Sic ora ferebat...; given by Dr Mapletoft 1683 (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.vii, fig.25).
W. P. Watson Antiquarian Books, 2006; Christie’s, 11 July 1986, lot 60, from Wentworth Woodhouse (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XX, 1932, p 79); inscribed above: The Famous Dr Willm Harvey Who discovered The Circulation of the Blood; lent to Duke University NC, 1989.
University of Newcastle, bequeathed by F. C. Pybus 1965 (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.viia, fig.26a).
Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.viib, fig.26b)
Christie’s SK, 30 March 1989, lot 57.
c.1651
Etching attributed to Richard Gaywood, see under NPG 60.
c.1653
Unattributed, three-quarter length seated, white-haired, with moustache and small pointed beard, right hand on table, left holding hat in lap, inscribed above: Gulielmus Harvey MD; Royal College of Physicians (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.ii, figs.5, 6; Piper 1964, pp 204-05). The many derivatives include:
Engraving by W. Faithorne 1653 (F. O’Donoghue & H. M. Hake, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits in the ... British Museum, 12) copied by F. Van Hove 1687 (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iia, figs.8, 9). The head copied in an engraving by Richard Gaywood, dateable 1653, later part of the engraved frontispiece to J. Wecker’s Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art and Nature, 1660 (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iib, fig.10).
Bust-length portrait, attributed to John Wollaston, Bodleian Library, Oxford (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XVIII, 1930, pp 106, 181, and Wal. Soc., XXVI, 1938, 17; Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford, I, p 51, no.126; Catalogue of Portraits in the Bodleian Library by Mrs R. L. Poole completely revised and expanded by K. Garlick, 2004, p 167; G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iic, pl.7), presented in 1735 by Humphrey Bartholomew; A version with the Royal College of Surgeons (given in 1773; G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iid) was destroyed in 1941.
Later copies in St Bartholomew’s Hospital College (by Isabella Mackay, G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, iie); in Caius College, Cambridge (by E. U. Eddis 1839 and Miss M. Dickinson 1893; G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, nos.iif, iig); with Dr Weir Mitchell in 1985 (by Mrs Merritt, G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iih); watercolour by Charles Waltner, Royal College of Surgeons (W. LeFanu, Catalogue of Portraits ... [at] the Royal College of Surgeons, 1960, p 33, no.101).
c.1656
Unattributed standing three-quarter length, facing right, gloves in his left hand, coat of arms upper right and motto PIV [H]ARDE PIV SPLENDI[DE]; Ditchingham Hall, Norfolk (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.vi, fig.23). A copy from Surrenden-Dering, Kent (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.via, fig.24). The head comparable with that seen in G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.v (see below).
c.1657
Wilhelm von Bemmel (1630-1708), three-quarter length seated by a window which gives unto a view of Rome, a rolled paper in his left hand, pointing with his right to engraved skulls in an open book (Spigelius, Works, 1645); Hunterian Collection, University of Glasgow (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iii, pl.13), acquired from Dr Mead’s collection in 1754; possibly painted in Rome; engr. J. Houbraken 1739, when in Dr Mead’s collection, as Bemmel pinx. (F. O’Donoghue & H. M. Hake, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits in the ... British Museum, 1; G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iiid, fig.15). A pencil copy by Jonathan Richardson the elder (formerly with G. C. Williamson) inscribed verso: Harvey AEt 80 ob 1657 from a picture in Dr Mead’s collection, may indicate an old inscription, of which only AEt.80 remains visible on the painting today.
The many derivative versions include those at:
St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Longleat (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, nos.iiia and b, fig.14; G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., xxvi, 1938, pp 39, 42, c.1742; Piper 1964, p 214, said that Bishop Ken acquired a portrait of Harvey c.1700); Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society, and the Royal College of Physicians (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, nos.iiie, f, figs.16b, 16c; Piper 1964, pp 206-07, 208-09). A 19th century oval miniature copy of G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iiif, sold Sotheby’s, 24 March 1980(95). Another late 19th century copy listed in the University Museum, Oxford by Poole (Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford, I, p 230, no.700, who mistakenly referred to a version in All Souls College, Oxford).
c.1656?
Unattributed portraits, showing a a more gaunt, elderly Harvey, both half and three-quarter length versions, including those with the Bristol Charities in 1973, the Kent Postgraduate Medical Centre (presented in 1807), at Kings Weston, and with Lord Cottesloe in 1985 (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, nos.v, va, vb, figs.19-22).
c.1657
Marble bust by Edward Marshall, in old age, set on his monument in St Andrew’s, Hempstead, Essex (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.viii, figs.27-30; White 1999, p 89, no.45); exh. RA 1956-57, no.70; Orange and the Rose, 1964, no.132.
1739
Marble bust by Peter Scheemakers; Royal College of Physicians (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iiic, fig.13a; Piper 1964, pp 210-11; I. Roscoe, ‘Peter Scheemakers’, Wal. Soc., LXI, 1999, no.133), made for Dr Mead in 1739; two plaster casts are also with the College (Piper 1964, p 210). Exh. RA 1956-57, no.29. Plaster in the Athenaeum (H. Tait & R. Walker, The Athenaeum Collection, 2000, p 47, no.386); another with the Royal College of Surgeons (W. LeFanu, Catalogue of Portraits ... [at] the Royal College of Surgeons, 1960, no.99). The head appears to have been modelled after the von Bemmel portrait (or the Houbraken engraving).
19th/20th century Images include
c.1820-30
W. Binfield, bronze medal (L. Brown, A Catalogue of British Historical Medals 1760-1960, I, no.1208)
1848
Painting by Robert Hannah, Harvey demonstrating before Charles II; Royal College of Physicians (Piper 1964, pp 212-13); engr. H. Leman 1851. A copy signed J. A. and dated 1862 is in a private collection.
1864
Statue by Henry Weekes, University Museum, Oxford. Model exh. RA 1864, no.917.
1869
Statue by Joseph Durham, Burlington House; sketch exh. RA 1869, no.198.
1875-76
Statue by Henry Weekes commissioned by the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians for the portico of the former College building in Pall Mall; probably the stone statue now in the grounds of the William Harvey pub, Wellingborough, Kent, which has also been attributed to Joy (illus. Country Life, 155, 23 June 1974, p 1286).
1881
Bronze monument by Albert Bruce Joy, his right hand on his heart, Folkestone; exh. RA 1881, no.1474; detail illus. Country Life, 164, 7 September 1978, p 634.
1886
Terracotta by Charles Birch. Versions in the Royal College of Surgeons (W. LeFanu, Catalogue of Portraits ... [at] the Royal College of Surgeons, 1960, p 32, no.100), the Royal Society of Medicine (Sakula 1989, pp 58-59), the Royal College of Physicians (Piper 1964, pp 214-15), the Anthropological Museum, Aberdeen, and with The Harveian Society.
1923
Medallion by Charles Hartwell; exh. RA 1923, no.1370.
This extended catalogue entry is by John Ingamells, one of a limited number of entries drafted in 2010 for the incomplete catalogue, Early Stuart Portraits 1625-1685, and is as written 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.
c.1627
NPG 5115.
c.1650
Attributed to Peter Lely c.1650 at Weston Park.
c.1651
Etching by Richard Gaywood.
c.1653
Unattributed portrait with the Royal College of Physicians.
c.1657
Wilhelm von Bemmel in the Hunterian Collection, Glasgow.
Marble bust by Edward Marshall in Hempstead church, Essex.
A comprehensive survey, listing many later, dependent images, was made by the late Sir Geoffrey Keynes (The Portraiture of William Harvey, 1949 (1st ed.), 1985 (2nd ed.)). The following list is slightly less inclusive, but is heavily indebted to Keynes’s work.
c.1627
Painting attributed to Daniel Mytens, see NPG 5115.
c.1650
Attributed to Peter Lely, half-length. Weston Park.
Possibly the Dr Harvey in Lely’s sale, April 1682 - a copy ‘Dr Harvey’ (see Burl. Mag., LXXXIII, 1943, p 188), bt. Lord Newport (later 1st Earl of Bradford); an unattributed portrait of Harvey was listed at Weston in 1735 (MS inventory, copy in NPG archive) and later with the 2nd Earl of Bradford at Twickenham in 1714 (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XVIII, 1930, p 31).
Versions include:
Royal Society, inscribed with name and, below: Sic ora ferebat...; given by Dr Mapletoft 1683 (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.vii, fig.25).
W. P. Watson Antiquarian Books, 2006; Christie’s, 11 July 1986, lot 60, from Wentworth Woodhouse (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XX, 1932, p 79); inscribed above: The Famous Dr Willm Harvey Who discovered The Circulation of the Blood; lent to Duke University NC, 1989.
University of Newcastle, bequeathed by F. C. Pybus 1965 (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.viia, fig.26a).
Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.viib, fig.26b)
Christie’s SK, 30 March 1989, lot 57.
c.1651
Etching attributed to Richard Gaywood, see under NPG 60.
c.1653
Unattributed, three-quarter length seated, white-haired, with moustache and small pointed beard, right hand on table, left holding hat in lap, inscribed above: Gulielmus Harvey MD; Royal College of Physicians (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.ii, figs.5, 6; Piper 1964, pp 204-05). The many derivatives include:
Engraving by W. Faithorne 1653 (F. O’Donoghue & H. M. Hake, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits in the ... British Museum, 12) copied by F. Van Hove 1687 (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iia, figs.8, 9). The head copied in an engraving by Richard Gaywood, dateable 1653, later part of the engraved frontispiece to J. Wecker’s Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art and Nature, 1660 (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iib, fig.10).
Bust-length portrait, attributed to John Wollaston, Bodleian Library, Oxford (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XVIII, 1930, pp 106, 181, and Wal. Soc., XXVI, 1938, 17; Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford, I, p 51, no.126; Catalogue of Portraits in the Bodleian Library by Mrs R. L. Poole completely revised and expanded by K. Garlick, 2004, p 167; G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iic, pl.7), presented in 1735 by Humphrey Bartholomew; A version with the Royal College of Surgeons (given in 1773; G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iid) was destroyed in 1941.
Later copies in St Bartholomew’s Hospital College (by Isabella Mackay, G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, iie); in Caius College, Cambridge (by E. U. Eddis 1839 and Miss M. Dickinson 1893; G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, nos.iif, iig); with Dr Weir Mitchell in 1985 (by Mrs Merritt, G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iih); watercolour by Charles Waltner, Royal College of Surgeons (W. LeFanu, Catalogue of Portraits ... [at] the Royal College of Surgeons, 1960, p 33, no.101).
c.1656
Unattributed standing three-quarter length, facing right, gloves in his left hand, coat of arms upper right and motto PIV [H]ARDE PIV SPLENDI[DE]; Ditchingham Hall, Norfolk (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.vi, fig.23). A copy from Surrenden-Dering, Kent (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.via, fig.24). The head comparable with that seen in G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.v (see below).
c.1657
Wilhelm von Bemmel (1630-1708), three-quarter length seated by a window which gives unto a view of Rome, a rolled paper in his left hand, pointing with his right to engraved skulls in an open book (Spigelius, Works, 1645); Hunterian Collection, University of Glasgow (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iii, pl.13), acquired from Dr Mead’s collection in 1754; possibly painted in Rome; engr. J. Houbraken 1739, when in Dr Mead’s collection, as Bemmel pinx. (F. O’Donoghue & H. M. Hake, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits in the ... British Museum, 1; G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iiid, fig.15). A pencil copy by Jonathan Richardson the elder (formerly with G. C. Williamson) inscribed verso: Harvey AEt 80 ob 1657 from a picture in Dr Mead’s collection, may indicate an old inscription, of which only AEt.80 remains visible on the painting today.
The many derivative versions include those at:
St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Longleat (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, nos.iiia and b, fig.14; G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., xxvi, 1938, pp 39, 42, c.1742; Piper 1964, p 214, said that Bishop Ken acquired a portrait of Harvey c.1700); Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society, and the Royal College of Physicians (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, nos.iiie, f, figs.16b, 16c; Piper 1964, pp 206-07, 208-09). A 19th century oval miniature copy of G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iiif, sold Sotheby’s, 24 March 1980(95). Another late 19th century copy listed in the University Museum, Oxford by Poole (Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford, I, p 230, no.700, who mistakenly referred to a version in All Souls College, Oxford).
c.1656?
Unattributed portraits, showing a a more gaunt, elderly Harvey, both half and three-quarter length versions, including those with the Bristol Charities in 1973, the Kent Postgraduate Medical Centre (presented in 1807), at Kings Weston, and with Lord Cottesloe in 1985 (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, nos.v, va, vb, figs.19-22).
c.1657
Marble bust by Edward Marshall, in old age, set on his monument in St Andrew’s, Hempstead, Essex (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.viii, figs.27-30; White 1999, p 89, no.45); exh. RA 1956-57, no.70; Orange and the Rose, 1964, no.132.
1739
Marble bust by Peter Scheemakers; Royal College of Physicians (G. Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey, no.iiic, fig.13a; Piper 1964, pp 210-11; I. Roscoe, ‘Peter Scheemakers’, Wal. Soc., LXI, 1999, no.133), made for Dr Mead in 1739; two plaster casts are also with the College (Piper 1964, p 210). Exh. RA 1956-57, no.29. Plaster in the Athenaeum (H. Tait & R. Walker, The Athenaeum Collection, 2000, p 47, no.386); another with the Royal College of Surgeons (W. LeFanu, Catalogue of Portraits ... [at] the Royal College of Surgeons, 1960, no.99). The head appears to have been modelled after the von Bemmel portrait (or the Houbraken engraving).
19th/20th century Images include
c.1820-30
W. Binfield, bronze medal (L. Brown, A Catalogue of British Historical Medals 1760-1960, I, no.1208)
1848
Painting by Robert Hannah, Harvey demonstrating before Charles II; Royal College of Physicians (Piper 1964, pp 212-13); engr. H. Leman 1851. A copy signed J. A. and dated 1862 is in a private collection.
1864
Statue by Henry Weekes, University Museum, Oxford. Model exh. RA 1864, no.917.
1869
Statue by Joseph Durham, Burlington House; sketch exh. RA 1869, no.198.
1875-76
Statue by Henry Weekes commissioned by the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians for the portico of the former College building in Pall Mall; probably the stone statue now in the grounds of the William Harvey pub, Wellingborough, Kent, which has also been attributed to Joy (illus. Country Life, 155, 23 June 1974, p 1286).
1881
Bronze monument by Albert Bruce Joy, his right hand on his heart, Folkestone; exh. RA 1881, no.1474; detail illus. Country Life, 164, 7 September 1978, p 634.
1886
Terracotta by Charles Birch. Versions in the Royal College of Surgeons (W. LeFanu, Catalogue of Portraits ... [at] the Royal College of Surgeons, 1960, p 32, no.100), the Royal Society of Medicine (Sakula 1989, pp 58-59), the Royal College of Physicians (Piper 1964, pp 214-15), the Anthropological Museum, Aberdeen, and with The Harveian Society.
1923
Medallion by Charles Hartwell; exh. RA 1923, no.1370.
This extended catalogue entry is by John Ingamells, one of a limited number of entries drafted in 2010 for the incomplete catalogue, Early Stuart Portraits 1625-1685, and is as written 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.