Portrait of William Fairbairn (1789-1874) Benjamin Rawlinson Faulkner

Three-quarter length seated portrait of Sir William Fairbairn. The engineer holds a quill pen in his right hand, the left elbow leaning against a table to the sitter's left, his face leaning lightly on his left hand. The table is covered in a green cloth and contains a glass inkwell held on a silver stand with a second quill. There is an angled writing stand with papers on it. Another set of papers to the foreground is headed: "Observations of the Cold blast" [referring to Fairbairn's published researches "On the strength and properties of cast iron obtained from the Hot and Cold blast", presented at the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1838]. Fairbairn is dressed in a black suit and tie with a white shirt. A pair of gold spectacles hangs from a black ribbon around his neck and there are two seals set in gold hanging at his waist. Behind is a seascape with two vessels, the most prominent an iron steamship of a type constructed by Fairbairn's company. William Fairbairn was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1850.

Original: oil on canvas, 1240x985mm. 19th century