Daniel De Foe

Stored in folder with PAD2734 and PAD2735. A late-life portrait of Daniel Defoe, with his facsimile signature, engraved by Robert Graves (1798-1873), son of the printseller Robert Graves senior. While quite a commonly found early 19th-century print, the source of the image is not clear. The two best-known prints from Defoe's lifetime (first published in 1703 and 1706 according to the National Portrait Gallery listing) are both by Michiel Van der Gucht after Jeremiah Taverner, but also rather different from each other in facial appearance of the sitter. Another late-life one engraved by James Hopwood senior after an oil portrait by Jonathan Richardson the elder (which is not now located) was published in Charles Cooke's 'Pocket Edition of Select British Classics', 1797 (copy in the British Museum). The last is probably the most reliable likeness.

Object Details

ID: PAD2736
Type: Print
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Graves, Robert; Hurst, Chance & Co
Date made: 1830
People: Defoe, Daniel
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection