Which peer is listed as owner of the 1689 Portrait of Isaac Newton?

The Earl of Portsmouth is listed as the owner of Godfrey Kneller’s 1689 Portrait of Isaac Newton. The oil painting shows Newton in his forties, before the more familiar images of him as an older scientific and public figure.

The portrait remained in Newton’s home during his lifetime, so it was seen mainly by relatives, friends, and visitors. Kneller painted another portrait of Newton in 1702, and that later image was better known while Newton was alive. The 1689 portrait gained wider recognition only in the nineteenth century.

In 1860, a photograph of the painting reached Bennet Woodcroft, who arranged for Thomas Oldham Barlow to engrave it. Barlow later received permission from the Earl of Portsmouth for an oil copy. That copy and a print of the engraving are now associated with the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The owner’s title can cause confusion because the painting’s public history includes several intermediaries and reproductions. The original work, however, is identified with the Earl of Portsmouth as its owner in the cited listing.