Engraving
Maker & role
Thomas Goff Lupton (b.1791, d.1873), Engraver
Production date
1839
Object detail
Title
Portrait of Robert Waring Darwin, MDFRS
Production place
Collection
Measurements
0 - Whole, H: 52 x W: 40cm (H: 520 x W: 400mm)
Production notes
After an oil portrait (1835) by James Pardon now in the collection of the Shrewsbury Museums Service.
Credit line
Gift, through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, by The Downes Family, 2010
Elizabeth Bay House Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Elizabeth Bay House Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Description
¾ engraved portrait in its original gilt frame of Dr Robert Waring Darwin (1766 – 1848), father of naturalist Charles Darwin. Darwin is portrayed ¾, seated and turned slightly to the viewer’s right. Engraving by Thomas Luton, 1839, after an oil portrait by J. Pardon (1835) now owned by the Shrewsbury Museums Service. Educated at the renowned Edinburgh University, and later Leiden University, R. W. Darwin was a highly successful doctor who in his later years was also renowned for his great size – he weighed over 150 kilos. The son of Erasmus Darwin, he married Susannah, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood in 1796. Her inheritance added considerably to Darwin’s successful medical practice and investments, later enabling his son to dedicate himself to scientific enquiry.
Acquisitions for Elizabeth Bay House emphasise the early period of occupation by the Macleay family, from1839 to 1845, and where possible are based on documentary or physical evidence. The original Macleay collection from Elizabeth Bay House, although dispersed, is reflected in inventories and (relatively few) identified provenanced pieces. Items such as this engraved portrait are therefore of key importance in informing the recreation of the house’s interiors (particularly the picture collection). This portrait is provenanced to the Macleay family’s country property, Brownlow Hill, Cobbitty, although not listed in the inventory of its contents drawn up in February 1859.
The engraved portrait of probably reflects a personal connection between W.S. Macleay and the Darwin family in the late 1830s. Charles Darwin may have had an opportunity to visit Elizabeth Bay as part of the Beagle voyage in the last days of January 1836. However, of this nothing is recorded. On the Beagle’s return, Darwin met William Sharp Macleay (then prominent in British science for his Quinary theory of relationships in the natural world) in London in April 1837. Macleay urged Darwin to publish the ‘Zoology of the Beagle’s Voyage’ (1) which later led to the publication of On the Origin of Species (1859) and a watershed in scientific understanding of the natural world.
Engraved portraits were typically distributed to subscribers to public or testimonials and often exchanged between colleagues and friends. Macleay’s role in presiding over the Zoological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s meeting in Liverpool in 1837 may have provided an opportunity to visit Darwin senior in Shrewesbury (2). Dr Robert Waring Darwin may have also been known to Alexander Macleay from his investments in canal building. While the exact circumstance of the Macleay family’s acquisition of the portrait is not known, it is likely that it was a personal presentation. The portrait of Robert Waring Darwin is therefore significant for demonstrating the Macleay family’s ongoing relationship with an international scientific community from their base in Sydney.
Notes:
1 - Darwin Correspondence Project, Letter 354, see http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk
2 - Fletcher, James Joseph, ‘The Society’s Heritage from the Macleays’, part 1, Linnaean Society of NSW Proceedings, 1920, p.605
Acquisitions for Elizabeth Bay House emphasise the early period of occupation by the Macleay family, from1839 to 1845, and where possible are based on documentary or physical evidence. The original Macleay collection from Elizabeth Bay House, although dispersed, is reflected in inventories and (relatively few) identified provenanced pieces. Items such as this engraved portrait are therefore of key importance in informing the recreation of the house’s interiors (particularly the picture collection). This portrait is provenanced to the Macleay family’s country property, Brownlow Hill, Cobbitty, although not listed in the inventory of its contents drawn up in February 1859.
The engraved portrait of probably reflects a personal connection between W.S. Macleay and the Darwin family in the late 1830s. Charles Darwin may have had an opportunity to visit Elizabeth Bay as part of the Beagle voyage in the last days of January 1836. However, of this nothing is recorded. On the Beagle’s return, Darwin met William Sharp Macleay (then prominent in British science for his Quinary theory of relationships in the natural world) in London in April 1837. Macleay urged Darwin to publish the ‘Zoology of the Beagle’s Voyage’ (1) which later led to the publication of On the Origin of Species (1859) and a watershed in scientific understanding of the natural world.
Engraved portraits were typically distributed to subscribers to public or testimonials and often exchanged between colleagues and friends. Macleay’s role in presiding over the Zoological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s meeting in Liverpool in 1837 may have provided an opportunity to visit Darwin senior in Shrewesbury (2). Dr Robert Waring Darwin may have also been known to Alexander Macleay from his investments in canal building. While the exact circumstance of the Macleay family’s acquisition of the portrait is not known, it is likely that it was a personal presentation. The portrait of Robert Waring Darwin is therefore significant for demonstrating the Macleay family’s ongoing relationship with an international scientific community from their base in Sydney.
Notes:
1 - Darwin Correspondence Project, Letter 354, see http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk
2 - Fletcher, James Joseph, ‘The Society’s Heritage from the Macleays’, part 1, Linnaean Society of NSW Proceedings, 1920, p.605
Accession number
EB2010/4
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