Sculpture of George Boole
Date
2023
Sitter
George Boole (1815 - 1864, British) , Mathematician
Creator
Antony Dufort (British) , Sculptor
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (sculpture): 710mm
width (sculpture): 224mm
depth (sculpture): 203mm
height (base): 60mm
width (base): 245mm
depth (base): 222mm
width (sculpture): 224mm
depth (sculpture): 203mm
height (base): 60mm
width (base): 245mm
depth (base): 222mm
Subject
Description
Full-length statuette of George Boole, standing with right hand extended forward holding a piece of chalk and left hand behind back clasping a book with the title 'Logic' a reference to Boole’s Laws of thought. Depicted as a young man in typical Victorian dress of full-length trousers, shirt and waistcoat with a double-breasted frock coat (unbuttoned).
The likeness is largely based on the only known photograph of Boole, taken before 1844 during his tenure of the Chair of Mathematics at Cork. This is the basis of most other known likenesses despite it not being a good representation in Boole’s own opinion, possibly owing to the exposure time of the photograph. Dufort utilised two further portraits of Boole, one in full face and another in left profile, contributing to the sight smile in the final portrait and a more rounded resemblance.
The statuette was created by the sculptor Antony Dufort FRSS, after his own life-size multi-figure memorial to George Boole outside Lincoln station. Dufort employed a scan of the original full-size bronze figure to produce this smaller version. The statuette moulds were finished by Dorota Rapacz Dufort, sculptor and wife of Antony. The casting of the statuette was done in January 2023.
George Boole (1815-1864) mathematician, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1857. He was awarded the Royal Medal in 1844 for his paper on a general method in analysis, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the present year.
Statuette of George Boole
The likeness is largely based on the only known photograph of Boole, taken before 1844 during his tenure of the Chair of Mathematics at Cork. This is the basis of most other known likenesses despite it not being a good representation in Boole’s own opinion, possibly owing to the exposure time of the photograph. Dufort utilised two further portraits of Boole, one in full face and another in left profile, contributing to the sight smile in the final portrait and a more rounded resemblance.
The statuette was created by the sculptor Antony Dufort FRSS, after his own life-size multi-figure memorial to George Boole outside Lincoln station. Dufort employed a scan of the original full-size bronze figure to produce this smaller version. The statuette moulds were finished by Dorota Rapacz Dufort, sculptor and wife of Antony. The casting of the statuette was done in January 2023.
George Boole (1815-1864) mathematician, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1857. He was awarded the Royal Medal in 1844 for his paper on a general method in analysis, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the present year.
Statuette of George Boole
Object history
Provenance: presented by Malcolm Smith, Trustee of the Heslam Trust, 2022
Commission of the donor, Malcolm Smith, the statuette is a smaller version of a life-size figure of Boole which forms part of a memorial by Antony Dufort located outside Lincoln railway station, unveiled in 2022, a gift to the city of Lincoln from the Heslam Turst. In the memorial the figure of Boole is accompanied by two school children with slates and a blackboard containing algebraic equations from his work 'Laws of Thought' copied from the manuscript in Boole's hand, held by the Royal Society archive. The school boy is modelled on the son of the sculptors and the schoolgirl on likeness of one of Boole's daughters: Alicia Boole Stott (1860-1940), also a mathematician.
Commission of the donor, Malcolm Smith, the statuette is a smaller version of a life-size figure of Boole which forms part of a memorial by Antony Dufort located outside Lincoln railway station, unveiled in 2022, a gift to the city of Lincoln from the Heslam Turst. In the memorial the figure of Boole is accompanied by two school children with slates and a blackboard containing algebraic equations from his work 'Laws of Thought' copied from the manuscript in Boole's hand, held by the Royal Society archive. The school boy is modelled on the son of the sculptors and the schoolgirl on likeness of one of Boole's daughters: Alicia Boole Stott (1860-1940), also a mathematician.