astronomy

Portrait of Thomas Young

Portrait of Thomas Young is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Portrait of Thomas Young rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas Young is an 1822–6 oil painting of the polymathic scientist Thomas Young (1773–1829) by the English painter Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830). A number of portraits of Thomas Young, based on the original Lawrence painting, have been made in various media, such as oil paintings, engravings, and mezzotints, including for illustrations in books and magazines.

Key takeaways

Portrait of Thomas Young belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Portrait of Thomas Young to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Portrait of Thomas Young from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thomas Young is an 1822–6 oil painting of the polymathic scientist Thomas Young (1773–1829) by the English painter Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830). A number of portraits of Thomas Young, based on the original Lawrence painting, have been made in various media, such as oil paintings, engravings, and mezzotints, including for illustrations in books and magazines.

Paintings The original painting is in a private collection. The antiquarian Hudson Gurney (1775–1864), who had been educated by Young, among others, and was a close friend, owned the original Lawrence portrait; it hung in his home, Keswick Hall, southwest of Norwich in Norfolk. There are several other portrait paintings of Thomas Young, largely based on the Lawrence portrait.

Henry Perronet Briggs (1791–1844) painted a copy of the original portrait by Lawrence. Thomas Young was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1794. This portrait was commissioned by Hudson Gurney (the owner of the original Lawrence portrait), and presented to the Royal Society in 1842, after Young's death. This version of the portrait was used for the cover of the 2006 1st UK edition and the 2023 2nd UK edition of the Thomas Young biography The Last Man Who Knew Everything by Andrew Robinson. Another painted copy of the portrait is held by the Royal Institution in London, where Young was appointed professor of natural philosophy in 1801 and gave lectures. This painting was commissioned by James Dewar, the Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, to help in completing its portrait collection of important professors there. It was gifted by Dewar in 1922. This version was painted by Hugh Goldwin Riviere (1869–1956) or Mabel Beatrice Messer (1874–1950). Thomas Brigstocke (1809–1881) painted a copy of the Lawrence portrait that is held by City St George's, University of London, associated with St George's Hospital, where Young was a physician.

Engravings and mezzotints There are also 1831 stipple engravings of the painting by Henry Adlard (active 1824–1869). Copies are held by the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Whipple Museum in Cambridge, and the Smithsonian Libraries in Washington, D.C. A stipple engraving by the printmaker George Henry Adcock (1803–1850/1) is held by the Royal Society and the Wellcome Collection in London. The engraver James Thomson (1788–1850) produced a stipple engraving of Young based on the Lawrence portrait in 1840. Charles Turner (1774–1857) produced a mezzotint based on the painting in 1830. A copy is held by the National Portrait Gallery. The painter and engraver George Raphael Ward (1799–1878) produced mezzotints based on the painting. There are two copies in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. A copy dating from 1855 is held by the Wellcome Collection. The Wellcome Collection includes a range of engravings of Thomas Young, based on the Lawrence portrait.

Illustrations A number of publications have included portraits of Young, based on Lawrence's painting, such as:

Life of Thomas Young (1855) Thomas Young (1874) Oeuvres ophthalmologiques de Thomas Young (1894) The Century's Progress in Physics (1897) Some Apostles of Physiology – being an account of their lives and labours, labours that have contributed to the advancement of the healing art as well as to the prevention of disease (1902) The Decrees of Memphis and Canopus (1904) Handbuch der Gesamten Augenheilkunde (1911) Britain's Heritage of Science (1917) The Last Man Who Knew Everything (2006)

References

External links Media related to Portraits of Thomas Young at Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Portrait of Thomas Young

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Portrait of Thomas Young claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Portrait of Thomas Young before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Portrait of Thomas Young ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Portrait of Thomas Young

In research: Portrait of Thomas Young appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Portrait of Thomas Young in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Portrait of Thomas Young is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1822 paintings, 1826 paintings, 1830 works, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Portrait of Thomas Young outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Portrait of Thomas Young in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Portrait of Thomas Young means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Portrait of Thomas Young out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Portrait of Thomas Young in simple terms?

Why does Portrait of Thomas Young matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Portrait of Thomas Young?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Portrait of Thomas Young.