Regency Portraits Catalogue
Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count von Rumford (1753-1814), Scientist; founder of the Royal Institution
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
Soldier, scientist, inventor and founder of the Royal Institution. In 1791, for services to Bavaria, he was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire (Rumford from Concord, New Hampshire, his birthplace).
'... the perfect warrior. My mother often spoke of him as carroty, his hair being red; but later not so, a very pretty colour' (his daughter quoted by Jones H. B. Jones, The Royal Institution, 1871, p 57).
'... the perfect warrior. My mother often spoke of him as carroty, his hair being red; but later not so, a very pretty colour' (his daughter quoted by Jones H. B. Jones, The Royal Institution, 1871, p 57).
Referencesback to top
Brown 1979Sanborn C. Brown, Benjamin Thomson, Count Rumford, 1979.
Ellis 1876
Complete Works with Memoir by the Rev George Ellis, 5 vols., 1876.
Jones 1871
H. B. Jones, The Royal Institution, 1871.
Sparrow
W. J. Sparrow, Knight of the White Eagle, 1964.
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.