Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.14108

    Portrait of John Whitehurst

    Date
    1786
    Sitter
    John Whitehurst (1713 - 1788, British) , Instrument Maker
    Creator
    William Hopkins Craft (1730 - 1811, British) , Painter
    After
    Joseph Wright of Derby (1734, British) , Painter
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (painting): 255mm
    width (painting): 225mm
    Subject
    Description
    Half-length portrait of John Whitehurst in profile, seated at a drawingboard. Whitehurst is dressed in a brown coat and waistcoat with a white shirt. He holds a pencil in his right hand, over a geological drawing. The drawing is inscribed: ‘A section of the Strata at M….’ There is a landscape with a volcano behind him.

    Painted inscription in white enamel, verso: “Portrait of John Whitehurst FRS. Author of an Inquiry Into the Original State and formation of the Earth and other Philosophical Works. W: H: Craft Fect.1786”.

    Painting is in a gilt-metal laurel frame within ebonised wood.

    John Whitehurst (1713-1788) was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1779.
    Object history
    Presented to the Society by Sir Alexander Richardson Binnie (1839-1917), British civil engineer, 1897.

    Original painting by Joseph Wright is at Derby Museum and Art Gallery (on loan from Mr. Nicholas Smith, 2007.)
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