Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Mathematical scientist
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
Philosopher, scientist and mathematician; b. Woolsthorpe, Lincs.; Trinity College, Cambridge 1661; fellow 1667; Lucasian professor of mathematics, Cambridge, 1669-1701; FRS 1672 and president from 1703; MP 1688-90, 1701-02; warden 1696 and master 1700 of the mint; Kt. 1705; published his laws of motion and concept of gravity in the Principia Mathematica 1689, and his analysis of the nature of light in the Opticks 1704 (continually revising both); buried in Westminster Abbey; a quiet, taciturn man whom his secretary of five years alleged he saw laugh only once.
‘He had a very lively and piercing eye, a comely and gracious aspect. His head of hair, as white as snow, was full with no baldness. Even as an old man he retained the bloom and colour of youth and all his teeth except one’ (John Conduitt).
This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, 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.
‘He had a very lively and piercing eye, a comely and gracious aspect. His head of hair, as white as snow, was full with no baldness. Even as an old man he retained the bloom and colour of youth and all his teeth except one’ (John Conduitt).
This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, 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.