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Portrait Medallion of Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)
Factory:
Wedgwood
Modeler:
Hackwood, William
(Attributed to)
Painter:
Wright, Joseph (Wright of Derby)
(After)
Jasper, solid pale blue with white relief. Oval, with curved edge, and half-length figure of Dr Erasmus Darwin facing front, head slightly to his left, arms resting on a semi-circular table. On the reverse there is a randomly-placed cluster of twenty-three circular holes.
The relief is modelled after the painting in oils by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1770
History note: Unknown before Max Rosenheim, FSA (1849-1911)
Given by Max Rosenheim, FSA
Height: 14.9 cm
Width: 12 cm
Method of acquisition: Given (1909-06-24) by Rosenheim FSA, Max
19th Century, second half
Circa
1850
CE
-
1900
CE
Model: attributed to William Hackwood, 1780.
The source for the model was one of three versions of the portrait of Darwin aged 38, in oils by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1779. The medallion was mentioned in the Oven Book on 19th and 26th February, 1780. The curved edges indicate that this example is of nineteenth century manufacture, probably after the reintroduction of a true jasper body in 1844.
Relief
white on solid pale blue Jasper ware
Accession number: C.1-1909
Primary reference Number: 11331
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Portrait Medallion of Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/11331 Accessed: 2025-05-07 21:10:03
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/11331
|title=Portrait Medallion of Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-05-07 21:10:03|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-11331
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa4/C_1_1909.jpg"
alt="Portrait Medallion of Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Portrait Medallion of Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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