57 Portrait of Robert Boyle the Philosopher (56). . . . . Kerseboom.
Nearly full-length, seated in a big armchair; turned to the right, but facing in front. He leans his right arm on the chair; his left is turning over the leaves of a book on a table in front of him. He wears a large full-bottomed wig. This picture has been engraved by Baron several times.
Boyle, the famous chemist and experimental philosopher, was the seventh son of the first Lord Cork, and from him received a fortune of £3,000 a year, which he devoted in a great measure to scientific research and the promotion of the Christian religion. He was never married, being of opinion that “a man must have very low and narrow thoughts of happiness or misery who can expect either from a woman’s conduct.” For his life, see his Philaretus.
Frederic Kerseboom was a native of Germany, who worked at Paris and Rome under Le Brun and Poussin. He was in England during William III.’s reign, and painted a few indifferent portraits.
58 Portrait of John Locke (947). . . . . Kneller.
Half-length, standing; turned to the right, but facing in front. He rests his left hand on a table, on which are an inkstand and a pen; his right hand in front of him. He wears a plain black coat, with part of his shirt showing; and he is without his wig, and shows his long white hair.
This is one of Kneller’s best portraits. It was evidently painted in the philosopher’s later years, for he looks here on the point of dying of the asthma to which he succumbed in 1704. “Pray,” said Locke in a letter to Collins, “get Sir Godfrey to write on the back of my picture ‘John Locke;’ it is necessary to be done, or else the pictures of private persons are lost in two or three generations.”
59 Sir Isaac Newton (957). . . . . Kneller.
Three-quarters length; turned to the left, facing in front. His right arm is by his side, his left leans on a table, on which are a globe and a book. He wears a dark, loose robe, and a large wig. On the left is inscribed: “I Newton Esqre Ætatis 47. 1689.”
There is a similar portrait to this at Petworth, which is engraved in Lodge. Newton was at this time member of the Convention Parliament, for the University of Cambridge.