56 PROCEEDIKGS OF THE 



III. 



2nd February, 1911. 



(a) 



Tub General Secretary, Dr. B. Daydon Jackson, gave tlie 

 following history of the portrait of Carl von Liiino painted by 

 Alexander Ivoslin, with s^jine further remarks ou the Laplaud 

 drum in the ilolfman portrait. 



lie pointed out that there are three portraits of the great Swede 

 known to be painted by lloslin, two of them busts and one a 

 tliree-quarter length. They have been termed by Prof. Tycho 

 Tullberg, the icouogi'apher of Linne, (1) the Stockholm, (ii) the 

 Grij)sholm, and (3) the Versailles portraits ; nos. 1 and 2 re- 

 epeetively form plates 13 and 12 of TuUberg's ' Linneportratt ' 

 ajid are excellently reproduced ; no. 3 in the same work is a half- 

 tone reproduction which leaves much to be desired. He had, 

 therefore, after much trouble and delay succeeded in getting afresli 

 photograph taken (Plate), and accompanied it with the following 

 acco\uit of its origin, so far as now ascertainable. 



Linne in his 'Egenh. Auteck.' p. 08, says: — " llerr Eoslin who 

 takes lUOO plutar (about <£165) of others, is doing Linne's portrait 

 gratis and so excellently that nothing can be more like ; all the 

 others are somewhat unlike." In a letter to his intimate friend 

 Biick at Stockholm, Linne says: — "Will my brother [i.e. Biick] 

 should he meet liosliu, who has not his equal in the world, be so 

 good as to ask when I should come? Think how extremely 

 generous he was to promise to paint my head gratis, though he 

 charges from 7000 to SOOO dalers (about £100 to £182) for each 

 portrait, and that he promised me the first time I had the fortune 

 to meet him. God grant that he may not repent. It would be a 

 reason for me once more during life to see Stockholm." This letter 

 is undated, but Prof. Fries states it was certainly written in 

 November 1774 (see Bref och Skrifv. v. p. 222). In a later letter, 

 ot" the 18th November, he continues, " My colleagues want to have 

 me with them in Stockliolm, when they will present the first book 

 t)f their Bible version, but lectures, presidency, cold winds, and old 

 age prevent me, though I should like to come, if Eoslin the great 

 portrait jiainter has time to do me the I'avour be has so kindly 

 jiromised" (lb. p. 223); and four days later, "If I keep well, 1 

 will come to Stockholm to enjoy the signal and valuable favour 

 our great lloslin offered me so innocently " (lb. p. 22-1). 



It is certain that Linne journeyed to Stockholm, probably a 

 few months later, in 1775, when the portrait was painted. Which 

 of the three portraits specified above veas the original is not easy 

 to decide, for Koslin took it with him to Paris. At the beginning 

 he evidently did not contemplate this, but on so deciding 

 he applied to the secretary of the Royal Academy of Science, 

 P. Wargontin, who seems to have taken Linne's opinion upon the 



