Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Bt

1 portrait matching these criteria:

© National Portrait Gallery, London

 Like voting
is closed

Thanks for Liking

Please Like other favourites!
If they inspire you please support our work.

Buy a print Buy a greetings card Make a donation Close

Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Bt

by John Jabez Edwin Mayall
daguerreotype, circa 1848
3 3/8 in. x 2 3/4 in. (86 mm x 70 mm)
Purchased with help from the Art Fund, 1996
Primary Collection
NPG P660

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

This portraitback to top

As a daguerreotype, this is a unique image and is the earliest recorded photograph of Herschel. Linking one of photography's scientific pioneers with one of its leading early practitioners, J.J.E. Mayall, it is of outstanding importance in the history of photography in Britain.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • 100 Portraits, p. 67
  • Cooper, John, A Guide to the National Portrait Gallery, 2009, p. 43 Read entry

    Herschel was an astronomer and physicist who invented the photographic use of sensitised paper and coined the term ‘positive’ and ‘negative’. This daguerrotype of him is an important early image by Mayall, but represents a technology that the sitter helped to supercede.

  • Funnell, Peter (introduction); Marsh, Jan, A Guide to Victorian and Edwardian Portraits, 2011, p. 24 Read entry

    John Herschel (1792-1871) was a commanding figure in the Victorian scientific world who made outstanding discoveries in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, chemistry and optics and was the inventor of many early photographic processes. As a daguerreotype, this is a unique image and is the earliest recorded photograph of Herschel. This portrait links one of photography’s scientific pioneers with one of its leading early practitioners, J. J. E. Mayall. It is of outstanding importance in the history of photography.

  • Jordanova, Ludmilla, Defining Features: Scientific and Medical Portraits 1660-2000, 2000 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 14 April to 17 September 2000), p. 18
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 299
  • Various contributors, National Portrait Gallery: A Portrait of Britain, 2014, p. 162

Events of 1848back to top

Current affairs

Led by Feargus O'Connor, up to 50,000 Chartist members meet on Kennington Common, to form a procession and present another petition to Parliament. Although there was a large military and police presence, the rally was peaceful.

Art and science

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood a group of English painters, poets and critics, is founded by John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt, intent on reforming art by rejecting the artists who imitated Raphael and Michelangelo. Instead, they advocated a return to a close observation of nature, invested with the intense detail, colours, and compositions of Quattrocento Italian and Flemish art, producing works layered with symbolism.

International

Following the fall of the French monarchy, revolutions take place in France, Germany and Italy, provoked by a widespread desire for political independence from repressive regimes, and a range of economic problems which had caused unemployment, food shortages and poverty. Louis Napoleon becomes the first President of France's Second Republic.
The first gold rush takes place in America, after gold is found on the Sacramento river, California.

Comments back to top

We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.

If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.