(Darwin, Charles) | The first published portrait of Darwin, likely an artist's proof

(Darwin, Charles)

A seated portrait of Darwin with his facsimile signature

Octagonal lithograph on India paper, mounted on card (to sight: 364 x 286 mm), signed and dated ("TH Maguire | 1849") in the image; stray spots and stains. Framed and glazed in Plexiglass; not examined out of frame. [With:] Lithographic self-portrait of Thomas H. Maguire (to sight: 366 x 285 mm), signed in the image, undated.

A very rare copy of the first published portrait of Charles Darwin, likely an artist's proof. The present lithograph is one of the earliest known portraits of the scientist in any format. The portrait, made when Darwin was forty, is preceded only by a childhood watercolor, George Richmond’s watercolor ca. 1840, and an 1842 daguerreotype of Darwin with his son William.

Thomas Herbert Maguire (1821-1895) made this portrait as part of the series Portraits of the Honorary Members of the Ipswich Museum. The 60 portraits, executed between 1847 and 1852, were privately commissioned by George Ransome, FLS, to celebrate the founding of the Ipswich Museum.

Darwin sat for the portrait in late 1849. In 1850 he reported to John Henslow that Ransome presented him with a set of the Ipswich portraits, which included a portrait of Henslow himself, who had been instrumental in the creation of the museum. Darwin noted wryly, “My wife says she never saw me with the smile, as engraved, but that otherwise it is very like” (Darwin Correspondence Project).

The series was then published in 1852 by M. & N. Hanhart with their imprint added below the facsimile signatures. That imprint is found on the vast majority of the portraits present in the National Portrait Gallery, the Wellcome Collection and the British Museum. In contrast, the present Darwin portrait has no such imprint. Remaining in Thomas Herbert Maguire's family until now, they were printed on India paper and mounted, suggesting that they are artist’s proofs.

Rare. This proof is scarce; we can trace no other artist's proofs in the standard auction records.

REFERENCE:

Darwin Correspondence Project, letter 1293

PROVENANCE:

From the family of Thomas Herbert Maguire, by descent