Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton

James Thornhill (1675 - 1734)

Woolsthorpe Manor

1712

Sir Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe Manor and made his first experiments in gravity there, inspired by the fall of an apple from a tree on to his head. Until the purchase of this portrait, the House lacked family possessions or even a painted portrait of the great mathematician and this work established a vivid physical presence of the scientist. Thornhill's presentation of Newton without a wig focuses our attention on his head and, by implication, on the mind working within it. The National Trust has owned Woolsthorpe Manor since 1942, the 300th anniversary of Newton's birth, when the house was bought to serve as a permanent memorial to Britain's great scientist.

• Medium: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 122 x 102 cm
• Art Fund Grant: £14000 ( Total: £35,000)
• ArtFunded in: 1994
• Vendor: Historical Portraits/ Philip Mould

Provenance

Probably by descent from Sarah Newton within the Foulds family until Miss Dorothy Hylda Foulds (1901-1977); private collection; with Historical Portraits Ltd.

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