Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9344
Looking for a special gift? Buy a print of this image.
Portrait of Rene Descartes
Date
17th century-18th century
Sitter
René Descartes (1596 - 1650, French) , Mathematician
Creator
Unknown, Artist
After
Frans Hals (1576 - 1666, Dutch) , Painter
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 759mm
width (painting): 636mm
width (painting): 636mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Half-length portrait of Descartes, who has long dark hair and a moustache with a small beard. Dressed in black coat or cloak with a white shirt collar, holding a hat in his left hand, just visible at the lower right of the painting.
Transcription
RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650) ARTIST UNKNOWN.
Rene Descartes 1596-1650 artist unknown
Rene Descartes 1596-1650 artist unknown
Object history
Bequeathed by Matthew Maty FRS, 1776 (along with the Society’s portrait of Bernard Le Bovier Fontenelle).
The donation is noted in the Society’s Journal Book with other presents tabled at a meeting of 7 November 1776: “Two portraits left by Dr.Maty in his Will to the Society, one of Descartes, & the other of Fontenelle.” [Royal Society Journal Book Original, JBO/29, p.154, meeting of 7 November 1776]. The gift does not feature in Council Minutes of that year or the annual list of presentations printed in Philosophical Transactions. The donor Matthew Maty’s duties in dealing with foreign correspondence as Royal Society secretary, and for the British Museum, gave him a special interest in continental men of science: as did his own Huguenot background and connections by marriage.
C. R. Weld’s catalogue of the Society’s pictures provides an attribution to “Frank Hals” [Descriptive catalogue of the portraits in the possession of the Royal Society, by Charles Richard Weld (London, Taylor and Francis, 1860), p.22]. The Louvre’s copy of the Hals original is the likely source for this work.
The donation is noted in the Society’s Journal Book with other presents tabled at a meeting of 7 November 1776: “Two portraits left by Dr.Maty in his Will to the Society, one of Descartes, & the other of Fontenelle.” [Royal Society Journal Book Original, JBO/29, p.154, meeting of 7 November 1776]. The gift does not feature in Council Minutes of that year or the annual list of presentations printed in Philosophical Transactions. The donor Matthew Maty’s duties in dealing with foreign correspondence as Royal Society secretary, and for the British Museum, gave him a special interest in continental men of science: as did his own Huguenot background and connections by marriage.
C. R. Weld’s catalogue of the Society’s pictures provides an attribution to “Frank Hals” [Descriptive catalogue of the portraits in the possession of the Royal Society, by Charles Richard Weld (London, Taylor and Francis, 1860), p.22]. The Louvre’s copy of the Hals original is the likely source for this work.
Associated place