Foster 840

Sir William Jones (1746-94), aged 47, painted 1793

Three-quarters length portrait. The subject is wearing a white cravat and shirt, black coat, breeches and boots. He is seated against the background of a balcony with a column and draperies gathered up on the right. His head is turned to his left and his right hand rests lightly on an open book placed on a table on which is placed a small sculpture of the elephant-headed Ganesa, books and an inkwell.

29.25 by 22 ins (74.3 by 55.8 cms)

Provenance: in the collection of the Earl Spencer, Althorp in 1979. Purchased from Christie’s, 11 November 1983, lot 165.

Literature: M. Archer (1979), p.251, plate 174; ‘India Office Library and Records - Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books Newletter,’ No.31, April 1984, pp 3-4, illustrated.

Exhibited: R.A. 1806 (286) as ‘W. Jones, Esq.’; Bicentenary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Exhibition, The British Library, 1984; National Portrait Gallery, ‘The Raj’, no.266.

Engraved: by W. Evans, 1798, and subsequently.

Sir William Jones embarked on his outstanding life of scholarship in 1764 when he began his study of oriental and other languages at University College, Oxford. He was tutor to the young Lord Althorp and became a fellow of his college in 1766. Before being called to the bar from the Middle Temple in 1774 he had already produced translations of Persian poems and histories, a Persian grammar and books of commentaries on Asiatic poetry. In his professional life he became a Commissioner of Bankrupts in 1776 and was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Calcutta in 1783. On his arrival in India he learnt Sanskrit and soon proposed the creation of a learned society for the study of the history, antiquities, arts, sciences and literature of Asia. The Asiatic Society of Bengal was founded in 1784 and Jones was its first president until his death. With great energy he extended his knowledge of botany, medicine, astronomy, anthropology and music and in the judicial field he made a digest of Hindu and Muslim laws. He died in his late forties; monuments to him were erected in St. Paul’s Cathedral, in Calcutta, and in the chapel of University College, Oxford.