Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.19099

    Portrait of Samuel Butler

    Date
    1749
    Sitter
    Samuel Butler (British) , Poet
    Creator
    James Nixon (1741 - 1812, British) , Artist
    After
    Peter Paul Lens (1714 - 1750, British) , Draughtsman
    Peter Lely (1618 - 1680, Dutch) , Painter
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 99mm
    width (print): 65mm
    Subject
    Description
    Half-length portrait of Samuel Butler, shown in a wig, lace collar and robe, his right hand held across the body.

    Plate from a grangerized copy of A history of the Royal Society, with memoirs of the Presidents…by Charles Richard Weld (London, John W. Parker, 1848). In this edition, the original two volumes were extended to eight volumes with the addition of extra-illustrations and documents, by Alexander Meyrick Broadley.

    The print appears at p.261 in volume 3 of the adapted set of Weld’s History.

    Inscription below: ‘P. Lely pinx. P Lens delin. 1749- Nixon. Scul. SAMUEL BUTLER. Taken from a Picture Painted for the use of the Lord Chancellor Clarendon Now in the Possession of Charles Longueville Esqr.’

    Samuel Butler (bap.1613, d.1680) British poet, author of the satirical poems Hudibras and The Elephant in the Moon [on the early Royal Society].

    Object history
    Print from Charles Richard Weld's 2 volume A history of the Royal Society... (London, John W. Parker, 1848) grangerized by the writer and collector Alexander Meyrick Broadley (1847–1916) into 8 volumes, adding illustrative material and manuscript items to Weld's text. The books were initially owned by Ludwig Mond FRS (1839–1909), and according to an inscription by his son Robert Ludwig Mond FRS (1867–1938) they were intended for presentation to the Society. This eventually happened in late 1959, the donor being the politician Harry Nathan (1889–1963), Lord Nathan of Churt.
    Related fellows
    Charles Richard Weld (1813 - 1869, British) , Author
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
    Powered by CollectionsIndex+/CollectionsOnline