Banks, Joseph, 1743-1820

engraved by H. Robinson

From the original of Sir Thomas Lawrence In The British Museum.

Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks PRS (1743-1820)

T.Q.L., body full, head turned slightly to r., wearing the Star and ribbon of the Order of the Bath; on the table beside him a mace.

The botanist Joseph Banks accompanied Captain James Cook on his round the world voyage of 1768-71 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.

(British Museum)