How you can use this image
This image is available to be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND).
You can reproduce this image for non-commercial purposes and you are not able to change or modify it in any way.
Wherever you reproduce the image you must attribute the original creators (acknowledge the original artist(s) and the person/organisation that took the photograph of the work) and any other rights holders.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find more images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
DownloadNotes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
Humphry Davy made his name in science experimenting with the effects of different gases before being appointed Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution (Ri), where he began to experiment with electro-chemistry. This was a very new and exciting branch of science, made possible by Alessandro Volta inventing the battery in the 1790s. In total between 1807 and 1814 Davy isolated or identified nine chemical elements including sodium and potassium. You can see some pieces of his apparatus represented in the painting, including a large trough battery which would have been filled with acid to create an electric current. Also on the table you can see the notebooks in which he recorded his discoveries which are now in the Ri archives. The portrait was probably completed in 1812, the year Davy married and was also knighted.
The Royal Institution
London
Title
Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829)
Date
1812
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 231.2 x W 141 cm
Accession number
RIIC 1546
Acquisition method
gift from James Young, 1889
Work type
Painting