Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.19997

    Portrait of Voltaire

    Date
    late 18th century
    Sitter
    Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694 - 1778, French) , Philosopher
    Creator
    Unknown, Engraver
    John Hinton (British) , Publisher
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 205mm
    width (print): 117mm
    Subject
    Description
    Half-length portrait, presented in an oval. Voltaire is shown holding a book in his left hand, half-turned, regarding the viewer. Behind, a bookcase with a curtain. Presented on a pedestal, with decorative features, including musical instruments.

    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.441 in volume 4 of the adapted set of Weld’s History. A footnote to the text mentions Voltaire’s visit to Engand in 1726-27 and his remarks on the Royal Society.

    Inscribed above: ‘Engraved for the Universal Magazine’. Inscribed below: ‘FRANCIS de VOLTAIRE. Printed for J. Hinton, at the Kings Arms in Paternoster Row’.

    Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer and philosopher of the Enlightenment.
    Object history
    Print from Charles Richard Weld's A history of the Royal Society, vol. 4... (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
          > France
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
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