Isambard Kingdom Brunel
- Artist: John Callcott Horsley
- Date: 1857
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 36 in. x 27 3/4 in. (914 mm x 705 mm)
- Portrays: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
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About this artwork
Before you stands a portrait of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, painted in 1857 by the Royal Academician John Callcott Horsley. The canvas shows the engineer in sober attire, his hands resting on an open book and a subtle background that hints at the industrial world he helped shape. The oil brushwork is smooth, yet the artist gives depth to the sitter’s eyes—revealing Brunel’s attentive gaze toward the future of railways and bridges. In this year the great engineer was already famed for the Thames Tunnel and was on the verge of designing the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The portrait, later given by his son in 1895, captures both a man and an era.
See it in person
Isambard Kingdom Brunel is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
