Portrait of Joseph Banks

Half-length portrait of Banks, seated in the Royal Society’s Presidential chair surmounted by its coat of arms, looking directly to the viewer in imposing style. Banks wears a black coat with white lining over a white shirt and embroidered waistcoat; over the coat, the red ribbon and star of the Order of Bath. On a table before Banks is a red tasselled mace cushion with the Society’s Charles II mace in front and the Society’s George III silver inkstands. Behind is a marble fireplace with a lion’s head design and to the right of the picture, an empty Vice-Presidential chair. In his right hand, Banks holds Humphry Davy’s Royal Society Bakerian Lecture for 1808. On the table is a manuscript of “On an Improved Reflecting Circle by Don Jose de Mendoza y Rios”, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Joseph Banks was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1766, he served as its President from 1778 to 1820.