This portrait is at King’s Weston House near Bristol in Gloucestershire, and is in the possession of P. Napier Miles, Esq., to whom the Historical Section offers its grateful thanks for the facilities he has offered for obtaining a successful photograph. Thanks are also given to Dr. J. A. Nixon of Clifton, who has spared himself no trouble to obtain the photograph from which the present collotype was made.

The picture is an oil-painting on canvas measuring 40 in. by 28 in. It is let into the wall on the right-hand side of the fireplace, with the light of the great west or north-west window falling full upon it. It is surrounded by a plaster moulding grained in imitation of a light wooden frame. The portrait is that of an old man—nearer 80 than 70—with a small oval face, hollow-cheeked and wide-browed. The face is deeply lined and the eyes sunken. The beard is pointed, the hair grey, scantier and more nearly white than in Janssen’s picture at the Royal College of Physicians. The whole expression is one of fatigue. He is sitting in a chair at a table, clothed in black and bare-headed. His gown is short-sleeved, without strings or buttons. The sleeves of a more shiny (velvet?) jacket or doublet show below the short sleeves of the gown. They end in a narrow white linen cuff, which is turned back to a depth of about half an inch. The gown, which is edged with fur, is open in front and shows the breast of a black velvet jacket, which is quite plain, without buttons or join in front. Round the neck is a soft white collar, smoothly turned down and not rumpled as in Janssen’s picture. The linen of the collar and cuffs is of delicate texture, as is shown by its transparency. Harvey is represented sitting in a chair at a table, with the right hand resting upon a book, in old calf binding without lettering, which stands on end with its back to the spectator. The hands are exquisitely painted, small and very life-like. It is almost possible to feel the difference between the grasp of the right hand, which holds the book, and that of the left, which lies negligently on the end of the arm of the chair. The face, which is turned three-quarters to the left, has very decided high lights on the forehead and left cheek. The table is on the left side of the picture, and the colour of the chair, table cover—which is naturally indented by the knee of the sitter—and book are all of a light brown. The chair resembles that in Janssen’s picture. It has become brown with age, but was perhaps originally pink. The background of the picture, which is without detail, is of a neutral brown tint, which lies between raw sienna and burnt umber, and is almost identical with the colour of the chair and table, which are thus rendered inconspicuous, though the figure is thereby thrown into relief. The canvas is labelled ‘Dr. Harvey’ in bold letters at the top right-hand corner. A copy in oils, 15 in. by 12 in., was made for Dr. Nixon and is signed ‘Frank Holmes, Clifton, 1913’.

Miss Russell, an aunt of Lord de Clifford, who formerly owned King’s Weston, writes: ‘The pictures in the Great Hall at King’s Weston near Bristol, formerly the seat of the Southwell family, were placed there by Mr. Edward Southwell, who died in 1755. They are all to be accounted family portraits except two hung together, one of Dr. William Harvey, the other of Sir Heneage Finch, Earl of Nottingham, and the connection of these two is easily accounted for. Sir Robert Southwell, the “Ned Southwell” of Swift’s letters (1635-1702), principal Secretary of State for Ireland under William III and five times President of the Royal Society from 1690, studied medicine at Oxford—whilst Harvey was at Merton College—and anatomy abroad. He married on 26th January, 1664, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Dering of Surrenden-Dering in Kent—a “very pretty woman” according to Pepys—whose mother was a daughter of Daniel Harvey, Dr. William Harvey’s brother. Elizabeth, another daughter of Daniel Harvey, married Heneage Finch. The two portraits therefore are those of Lady Southwell’s Grand-uncle and Uncle.’ The Rev. Richard Warner, in his Excursions from Bath, 1801, attributes the picture to Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), and as it is clearly in his earlier style it is modelled on the style of Van Dyck, to whom it has been attributed. Van Dyck, however, died in December, 1641, and Harvey was not so old or worn at this time.