IS THIS A PORTRAIT OF JOHN GRAUNT? AN ART HISTORY MYSTERY

John Snow and William Farr’s landmark discovery of the causes of cholera in the 1850s is commonly identified as the birth of epidemiology. Their study, however, was preceded nearly 200 years by one from the Englishman John Graunt (1620–1674), who published a systematic, quantitative, population-level study of environmental and societal factors that influence morbidity and mortality. This work, Natural and Political Observations Made on the Bills of Mortality (1), presaged many common methods in modern epidemiology. Unfortunately, unlike Snow or Farr, no image of Graunt is known to have survived, even though his sister Judith (1630–1690) was married to the famous artist William Faithorne, Sr (~1616–1691) and Graunt’s art collection was widely admired (2; diary entry on April 20, 1663).

A sketch entitled Captain John Graunt is often presented as a likeness of Graunt (Figure 1), but it is unlikely to be a true representation. The chief evidence against this is the anachronistic hairstyle and clothing, especially the short-cropped hair and large mutton chops, which are characteristic of the late 19th or early 20th centuries (3). Indeed, Drs. Alfredo Morabia and Charles “Chuck” R. Fikar at Columbia University were able to trace the sketch’s origins to History of Life Insurance in Its Formative Years, which was published in 1936 (4). We found that although the book lacked image attributions, the sketch’s style matched other images throughout the book. Together with the styling, this strongly suggests that Captain John Graunt was commissioned in the 1930s for this book.

Figure 1.

Sketch Captain John Graunt. Reproduced with permission from the collection of the Baker Library, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts (4).

Recently, a colleague (Dr. Kristin Heitman) found a portrait from the mid-1650s (Figure 2; Unknown Man) that may represent, if not Graunt himself, a man much more like Graunt in station, age, and bearing at the time of On the Bills of Mortality (5). On hearing of this portrait and its (admittedly tenuous) link to John Graunt, we—alumnae of the John Graunt Society at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—set out to determine whether it could be a portrait of our society’s namesake.

Figure 2.

Versions of the Unknown Man over time. A) Sketch of Unknown Man as it looked in 1860. Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom; reproduced with permission (13). B) Sketch of Unknown Man as it looked in 1880 upon acquisition by the National Portrait Gallery. Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London; reproduced with permission (14)). C) Unknown Man as it looked in 1963. Reproduced with permission from the collection of the Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts (6). D) Unknown Man as it looks now following cleaning in 1977. Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom; reproduced with permission (5).

A BRIEF HISTORY OF UNKNOWN MAN

Unknown Man is currently in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London, United Kingdom. A 1963 NPG-held catalogue (6) describes it as a portrait of William Faithorne painted by Robert Walker (1599–1658) that was acquired on June 7, 1880, from Christie’s Auction House. However, although Christie’s confirmed they held an auction in London on that day, it did not include any paintings by Robert Walker. They suggested we consult records of Puttick & Simpson (J. Pilkington, Christie’s Auction House, personal communication, 2016). An original Puttick & Simpson catalogue indicates the painting was indeed acquired from their June 7, 1880, auction. It was listed as item 133, part of a collection from the estate of W. A. Bryant, Esq. of Old Charlton, and described as a self-portrait of William Faithorne (7). Unknown Man was purchased at auction by Henry Graves & Co. Printsellers and Publishers and acquired by the NPG in July 1880 (8).

Intriguingly, when in the collection of W. A. Bryant circa 1860, Unknown Man looked very different than it does today. George Scharf, Trustee of the NPG in the mid-1800s, sketched the portrait in 1860 and again in 1880 after it was acquired by the NPG (Figure 2A and 2B). These versions included several layers of overpaint, which increasingly suggested the subject was William Faithorne (Graunt’s brother-in-law) (9). The 1963 catalogue version matches Scharf’s 1880 sketch (Figure 2C). Finally, in November 1977, Philippa Abrahams restored the painting to its current state (Figure 2D) in consultation with Robin Gibson, and a “Mrs. Robero” (in fact Dr. Aileen Ribeiro), a fashion historian from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. The “crudely overpainted” cloak was removed under a microscope with a scalpel, as was some of the background (9).

WHY THE UNKNOWN MAN MIGHT BE JOHN GRAUNT

John Graunt’s home and possessions were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and Graunt died in 1674 in relative poverty. There are no existing records of a portrait of Graunt himself, but many of Graunt’s friends are known to have commissioned portraits of themselves (10, 11). For example, Graunt was friends with the famous diarist and politician Samuel Pepys, whose personal diary (1660–1670) contains several entries about portraits of himself and his wife and in which he recommends his portraitist, John Hayls (1600–1679), to friends (2; diary entry on March 17, 1666). Although the diaries do not mention whether Pepys recommended Hayls to Graunt, they do suggest Graunt and Hayls were friends (2; diary entry on April 26, 1668).

Unlike that in Captain John Graunt, the clothing in Unknown Man is a good match for English fashion during the 1650s. The length of hair and fullness of the sleeves are indicative of this decade (A. Ribiero, Courtauld Institute History of Dress Department, personal communication, 2018) when Graunt was in his 30s (the portrait subject’s apparent age) (9). A letter from Philippa Abrahams states, “Mrs Robero [sic] of the Courtauld Institute History of Dress Dept., confirmed that the sitter’s costume was fashionable at the time the painting was painted, ie [sic] a leather jerkin with [white] shirt and billowing sleeves” (9). This is simpler clothing than worn by the mid-1600s upper class but more elegant than that worn by the lower classes (3). The long, curled and flowing hairstyle in the painting also fits with the time, especially for a young businessman or scholar (3). Fashionable 17th century Englishmen of Graunt’s social standing were typically clean-shaven or wore a small goatee beard and mustache. Graunt was a haberdasher and member of the Drapers guild (12), and his trade could explain the lovely cloth combined with a relatively plain style (10, 11).

CONCLUSION

Although we cannot say the portrait definitively represents Graunt, Unknown Man is representative of how Graunt likely looked in the 1660s when writing On the Bills of Mortality: young, creative, and full of bold new ideas. In contrast, we feel confident the sketch Captain John Graunt is not a true likeness. We hope the present letter will discourage use of Captain John Graunt (Figure 1) and inspire others to further investigate the Unknown Man (Figure 2) or look for other plausible portraits of Graunt.