Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.9555
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    Portrait of Charles Wheatstone

    Date
    1860s
    Sitter
    Charles Wheatstone (1802 - 1875, British) , Inventor
    Creator
    Charles Martin (1820 - 1906, British) , Painter
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (painting): 914mm
    width (painting): 609mm
    Subject
    Content object
    clothing
       > accessory
          > glasses
    Description
    Half length seated portrait of Charles Wheatstone, the sitter’s body turned to the viewer’s left. Wheatstone wears a black or dark brown suit with a white shirt and black tie. He is shown wearing spectacles and holding a sheaf of papers in his left hand.

    Charles Wheatstone was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1836.
    Transcription
    CM
    SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE, F.R.S. (1802-71) by C.MARTIN.
    Object history
    Bequeathed by Charles Wheatstone, 1875.

    The gift is noted in Council Minutes and the portrait had been received by December 1875: “The Treasurer reported that he had received from the Executors of the late Sir Charles Wheatstone, in accordance with the terms of his Will, a Portrait in oil of the Hon.Robert Boyle, by Kneller; a Portrait in oil of Sir C.Wheatstone, by C.Martin; and nineteen framed lithographic and photographic portraits of scientific men.” [Royal Society Minutes of Council, Printed, CMP/4, 1870-1877, p.295 meeting of 16 December 1875]. The Society retains the original correspondence surrounding the bequest. [Royal Society, Miscellaneous Correspondence MC/10/303, 314, 318, 391].

    The Society’s portrait of Robert Boyle, by John Riley, formed part of the same acquisition.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
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