Adriaan de Lelie (Tilburg 1755- Amsterdam 1820), pintor; Reinier Vinkeles (Amsterdam 1741-1816 ), grabador; Cornelis Sebille Roos (1754-1820), marchante de arte
Portrait of Jean Henri van Swinden (1746-1823)

Portrait of Jean Henri van Swinden (1746-1823)
Jean Henri van Swinden (The Hague, 8 June 1746 - Amsterdam, 9 March 1823) was a prominent Dutch mathematician and physicist of French parents. After studying at the University of Leiden from 1763-1766, he obtained his doctorate in philosophy with his thesis "The Natural Power of Attraction". In the same year he became professor of physics and philosophy at the University of Franeker. In 1776, he won a prize from the Académie Royale des Sciences, together with Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, for his research on the earth's magnetic field. Years later, in 1785, he moved to Amsterdam where he taught at the Athenaeum Illustre. He was instrumental in helping the postal service by proposing his system for numbering houses. Other work of his contributed to the introduction of the metric system in the Netherlands. His lectures at the Felix Meritis Society, a temple for the dissemination of the new postulates of the Enlightenment, were fundamental to progress in his fields of research. Since 1971, the prestigious laboratory of the calibration service has borne his name, the Van Swinden Laboratorium (VSL).

The print shows a portrait of Van Swinden with a head pose similar to his presence in the painting The Inauguration of the Felix Meritis Building on 31 October 1788, painted by Adriaan de Lelie (Tilburg 1755 - Amsterdam 1820). Print, ca. 1788. Signed in plate, under the oval: "A. d. Lelie, pinx, Reinr.Vinkeles. Sculp."; below, in the centre: "J. H. VAN SWINDEN. / C.S. Roos, excudit Amstelodami.". Size 177 x 134 mm (paper); 277 x 202 mm (support).

Measurement with frame:

20.2 x 27.7 cm