Regency Portraits Catalogue
John Playfair (1748-1819), Mathematician and geologist
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
1814-15
Oils by Raeburn, see NPG 840.
1814
Marble bust by Chantrey in Edinburgh University library incised: CHANTREY/Sculptor/1814. It was commissioned by J. F. Kennedy of Edinburgh in 1812 and paid for in 1815 (£105) (Sir Francis Chantrey’s Ledgers of Accounts, p 22), and engraved by Swan for Glasgow Mechanical Magazine, 1825; it was seen by Dr Waagen in Playfair's nephew's house in Edinburgh in 1856 (Dr Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, IV, 1857, p 434); the plaster model is in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (620-108) exhibited RA 1814 (782) and a plaster cast in Scottish NPG (244).
1819
Pencil and watercolour drawing by William Nicholson is in National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, three-quarter-length seated to left wearing spectacles, based on Raeburn's oil in Edinburgh University (Scottish NPG L44); an etching by William Nicholson, signed and dated: WN ft/1819, was made for Nicholson's Portraits of Distinguished Living Characters of Scotland; a pencil drawing of the head only is Scottish NPG (1688).
Portrait by unknown artist, known from a stipple vignette by James Thomson, half-length seated to left in library holding quill, published 1 September 1819 in New Monthly Magazine.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, 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.
Oils by Raeburn, see NPG 840.
1814
Marble bust by Chantrey in Edinburgh University library incised: CHANTREY/Sculptor/1814. It was commissioned by J. F. Kennedy of Edinburgh in 1812 and paid for in 1815 (£105) (Sir Francis Chantrey’s Ledgers of Accounts, p 22), and engraved by Swan for Glasgow Mechanical Magazine, 1825; it was seen by Dr Waagen in Playfair's nephew's house in Edinburgh in 1856 (Dr Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, IV, 1857, p 434); the plaster model is in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (620-108) exhibited RA 1814 (782) and a plaster cast in Scottish NPG (244).
1819
Pencil and watercolour drawing by William Nicholson is in National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, three-quarter-length seated to left wearing spectacles, based on Raeburn's oil in Edinburgh University (Scottish NPG L44); an etching by William Nicholson, signed and dated: WN ft/1819, was made for Nicholson's Portraits of Distinguished Living Characters of Scotland; a pencil drawing of the head only is Scottish NPG (1688).
Portrait by unknown artist, known from a stipple vignette by James Thomson, half-length seated to left in library holding quill, published 1 September 1819 in New Monthly Magazine.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, 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.