Portrait of: William Buckland
By: Samuel Cousins
After: Thomas Phillips
Style: Mezzotint
Date: 1833
Dimensions: 33.1 x 43.2 cm
The Reverend William Buckland (1784-1856) was a geologist and Dean ofWestminster, born in Devon. He studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford from1801 and was made a fellow of the college by 1808. He delivered lectures ingeology and mineralogy in the old Ashmolean Musuem, which for many years weresome of the most popular in the University. Buckland was most widely famedfor his hypotheses on fossil cave faunas, notably in Kirkdale Cavern, Yorkshire.
This likeness alludes specifically to Buckland’s acclaimed achievementsin the field of geology. He is portrayed in his academic robes surrounded byfossils and holding an animal skull. It is perhaps unsurprising that he hasbeen depicted in this way as it is suggested in the Oxford Dictionary of NationalBiography that he was rarely seen without his academic gown and a blue bagfull of his most recently discovered fossils and bones ready to demonstrate.
