Credit: The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.1479

    Portrait of John Gray

    Date
    c.1800
    Sitter
    John Gray, Mathematician
    Creator
    Unknown, Engraver
    After
    Thomas Hudson (1701 - 1779, British) , Painter
    Object type
    Image reference
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 315mm
    width (print): 250mm
    Description
    Three-quarter length seated portrait showing John Gray in a long jacket and stockings with a frilled cravat and cuffs. He is turned to the left and is facing out towards the viewer. His right elbow rests on the corner of an ornate table next to a small pile of books and a sheet of paper can be seen in his left hand. A curtain is visible behind him next to a stone window looking out onto a clouded sky.

    Inscribed below: ‘John Gray Esq FRS’

    John Gray (died 1769), British mathematician and naval officer, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1732. He was a slave owner and profited from the forced labour of enslaved people working over 2,000 acres of land as Gray's Inn Plantation in Jamaica.
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