Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9285
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Portrait of Edmond Halley
Date
ca. 1736
Sitter
Edmond Halley (1656 - 1742, British) , Astronomer
Creator
Michael Dahl (1659 - 1743, Swedish) , Painter
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 1267mm
width (painting): 1020mm
width (painting): 1020mm
Subject
Description
Edmond Halley as an old man, wearing a loose black robe over a brown coat. Beneath that, a white shirt with a fine squared collar at the neck. He wears a grey wig, shoulder-length and high up from the forehead. Behind him, in a curtained recess, are two bound books on a shelf. Another volume rests on a surface in front of Halley, over which lies, held in his right hand, a sheet of paper with a diagram of concentric circles.
The figure is from “An account of the cause of the change of the variation of the magnetical needle with an hypothesis of the structure of the internal parts of the Earth…”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.16 1686-1692 pp.563-578, in which Halley attempts an explanation for the movements of the Earth’s magnetic poles through its internal structure.
Edmond Halley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1678.
The figure is from “An account of the cause of the change of the variation of the magnetical needle with an hypothesis of the structure of the internal parts of the Earth…”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.16 1686-1692 pp.563-578, in which Halley attempts an explanation for the movements of the Earth’s magnetic poles through its internal structure.
Edmond Halley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1678.
Transcription
Dr.Ed.HALLEY AGED 80
EDMOND HALEY (1656-1742) CLERK 1686-98. SECRETARY 1713-21. By MICHAEL DAHL
EDMOND HALEY (1656-1742) CLERK 1686-98. SECRETARY 1713-21. By MICHAEL DAHL
Object history
Both of the Society’s pictures of Edmond Halley were in the Society’s collection by 1768, as noted by a contemporary visitor: [ “A list of original pictures at the Royal Society House. Communicated by a Connoisseur’, Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 38 (1768), pp. 62-3.]
Associated place