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The botanist Joseph Banks accompanied Captain James Cook on his round the world voyage of 1768–1771 but was left behind on the second. The forceful Banks is seen here as President of the Royal Society, to which he was elected in 1778, with the Society’s mace donated by Charles II on the table. He wears the Star and ribbon of the Order of the Bath, to which he was appointed in July 1795. As President he became an ex-officio Trustee of the Museum and donated ethnographical material, manuscripts and Icelandic printed books. His library was bequeathed on complicated terms after his death. Sir Thomas Lawrence, in his day, was the leading portrait painter in England who painted almost every prominent person. This portrait is known to have been in the possession of the engraver and antiquary Samuel Lysons (1763–1819), Vice President and Treasurer of the Royal Society.
Title
Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820), President of the Royal Society, Trustee of the British Museum
Date
after 1795
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 127 x W 101.6 cm
Accession number
Painting.28
Acquisition method
gift from Reverend Daniel Lysons, 1819
Work type
Painting
British Museum
Great Russell Street, London, Greater London WC1B 3DG England
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