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Notes

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Roberts is shown half-length, slightly to turned to the left, with papers and plans on the table to the left. Roberts was an inventor and engineer based in Manchester. This portrait formed part of the Bennet Woodcroft Bequest, which was among the founding collections of the Science Museum. Woodcroft had developed a 'National Gallery of Portraits of Inventors, Discoverers and Introducers of the Useful Arts’ combining gifts, loans and purchases of portraits while acting as the first curator of the Patent Museum. Bennet Woodcroft commissioned the artist Thornton Rippingille to paint this portrait in a letter of 27 December 1858. Roberts sat for Rippingille and the portrait was completed in mid-February 1859. In a letter of 14 July 1860, Woodcroft informed Rippingille that Thomas Oldham Barlow was engraving the oil portrait.

Science Museum

London

Title

Richard Roberts (1789–1864)

Date

1858–1859

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 76 x W 63 cm

Accession number

1903-230

Acquisition method

Bennet Woodcroft Bequest, 1903

Work type

Painting

Inscription description

Text accompanying the engraving lists it as 'from the original picture by T. Rippingille in the collection of Mr. B. Woodcroft, Great Seal Patent Office'.

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