George Boole

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed along the bottom, in pencil: George Boole Aetatis Suae 32

This portraitback to top

The donor discovered the drawing stuck to the flyleaf of a rebound copy of Boole's first edition of The Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847), inscribed to Dickson; the drawing is still mounted in this book. In a letter, dated Christmas 1863, Boole wrote to a Mr Brooke (apparently a bookseller friend in Lincoln):

'I think the presentation copy of my Logic to Dickson if it contains any notes by him ought to be bought in for me, could you get a sight of it? I hoped the sketch of me had been burnt. It was done by a friend of Dickson's now dead.'
In a second letter to Brooke of 3 April 1864, Boole wrote:

'Mary [his wife] is much obliged to you for your long letter, which gave us both great pleasure. She wishes you to take care of the book containing the profile for her - but not to send it by post. She says that she wishes to have the profile if it is good in order to keep it, if it is bad in order to burn it.'
In a third letter of 28 August 1844, Boole wrote:

'How curious it is that we do not really know our own personal appearance - at least I do not. I had my photograph taken in London and I am sure that if I had seen it in a shop window I should not have known it was meant for me.' [1]
A drawing made from an early photograph of the NPG drawing is in the collection of Bernard Harrison.

Footnotesback to top

1) Three passages from Boole's letters communicated by the donor in a letter of 27 September 1966 (NPG archives).

Referenceback to top

NPG Annual Report, 1964-5 (1966), p 25.

Provenanceback to top

Presented by the sitter to his friend, the Rev G. S. Dickson; repurchased by the sitter at Dickson's death in 1863; bequeathed by the sitter's widow to her grandson, Sir Geoffrey Taylor, 1916, and presented by him, 1964.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, 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.

View all known portraits for George Boole