Christopher Wren

Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren

By Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt., oil on canvas, 1711; 49 in. x 39 1/2 in. (1245 mm x 1003 mm). Source: National Portrait Gallery 113 (CC by-nc-nd/3.0).

In 1711, the year this portrait was made, the architect Sir Christopher Wren was seventy-nine and had finally completed his masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral. Wren's magnificent classicizing structure replaced the original Elizabethan cathedral which had burnt down during the Great Fire of London of 1666. In this portrait Wren's achievement is alluded to by the pair of dividers which he holds, the copy of Euclid and the plan of the west end of the new St Paul's. (National Portrait Gallery)