Stephen Hawking by Tai-Shan Schierenberg (Courtesy: Royal Society)
By Hamish Johnston
Stephen Hawking was in London yesterday to unveil this portrait of himself at the Royal Society.
The painting is by the English artist Tai-Shan Schierenberg, who also has four works just down the road in the National Portrait Gallery.
If you happen to visit the Royal Society, make sure you make time for organization’s fantastic collection of portraits. You can admire likenesses of John Flamsteed, who founded the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, the great Victorian scientist Michael Faraday — and even the mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, who was famously vilified by Isaac Newton and the Royal Society.
And apparently, there is a portrait of Newton but I haven’t managed to come across it.
