A half-figure directed to the left, three-quarter face, looking at the spectator, in dark close-fitting cloak with a row of closely-placed buttons in the centre, white collar (which meets at the throat and is cut square) without tassels, black skull-cap, which almost entirely covers the hair, except at the left side; grey moustache, slight grey hair on lower chin. Size about 30 in. by 25 in. It probably represents Harvey between fifty and sixty years of age.

This portrait is stated in C. R. Weed’s Descriptive Catalogue of the Portraits in the Possession of the Royal Society, 1860, p. 36, to be by De Reyn, but in the numerous engravings of it the painter is given as Janssen. It was presented to the Royal Society by the Rev. John Mapletoft, M.D. (1631-1721), who was elected F.R.S. February 10, 1675-6. The collotype is made from a steel engraving of the picture.

Jan de Reyn (1610-1678) was a pupil of Van Dyck, whom he accompanied to England and after whose death in 1641 he returned to his home at Dunkirk.