| Description | Half-length portrait of Peter Ball wearing a black skullcap, black robe and white squared collar. The sitter is white-haired and has a small beard and moustache, shown within a painted oval with an acanthus motif.
The portrait contains a Latin inscription: ‘Petrus Balle miles/Aetatis 74/1671’ which translates as ‘Peter Ball knight/Aged 74/1671’.
Purchased by the Royal Society in 1993 as a portrait of Peter Ball FRS (1633-1675), this painting actually shows his father, Sir Peter Ball (1598-1680). Sir Peter was not a Fellow of the Royal Society, but was the father of two Fellows, the astronomer William Ball FRS (c.1631–1690) and the physician Peter Ball who this painting was previously thought to show. |