Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.19716

    Portrait of Francis Bacon

    Date
    1798
    Sitter
    Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626, British) , Natural philosopher
    Creator
    John Chapman (British) , Engraver
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 155mm
    width (print): 100mm
    Subject
    Description
    Head and shoulders study of Francis Bacon, in period dress, half-turned to the left as viewed, looking directly to the viewer, in an oval frame. With a vignette below, showing a delegation from the parliamentary committee that presented charges of corruption to Bacon. Bacon is shown seated in an armchair, with a globe by his side.

    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 engraving appears at p.32, as Weld’s text quotes from John Wallis’s account of the origins of the Royal Society, citing Francis Bacon.

    Inscribed below: ‘FRANCIS LORD BACON. VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS. Lord VERULAM. J. Chapman Sculpsit. London publish’d as the Act directs Feb. 10 1798 by J. Wilkes.’

    Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban (1561-1626) lord chancellor, politician and philosopher, author of Proficience and advancement of learning divine and human (1605) Novum organum (1620) and other works of scientific methodology.
    Object history
    Print from Charles Richard Weld's A history of the Royal Society, vol. 1... (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
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