Details

Portrait by Reginald Henry Campbell, based on a photograph of Clerk Maxwell owned by Sir Ambrose Fleming. Shows James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), three-quarter length, seated at a table. Signed and dated 1929, oil on canvas. 57 x 40 inches in a modern composition frame. Painting commissioned by Llewelyn Birchall Atkinson, but then donated immediately to the IEE. Atkinson owned the copyright, which he formally assigned to the IEE, 5 February 1931 [note: assignment contract in legal contracts series - reference Pub 13:29]. When Atkinson presented the painting to the IEE at a meeting of the IEE on 7 November 1929, he gave a speech about Clerk Maxwell and the painting, in which he went into great detail about the source material used by Campbell when producing the painting, and the subject matter in the painting. The text confirms that the revolving-coil apparatus shown on the table was that designed by Lord Kelvin and was the one used in 1863 at King’s College to first determine the value of the ohm. Full text of speech can be found in Proceedings of the IEE, vol.68, issue 397, January 1930, pp. 198-201.