John Radcliffe (1650–1714)

This 1712 portrait of John Radcliffe at the Bodleian Libraries is one of the final portraits Kneller painted of this celebrated physician, who died two years later in 1714. The Bodleian's possession of this version connects it directly to the library that Radcliffe's posthumous bequest transformed through the construction of the Radcliffe Camera — the iconic circular library building that became Oxford's most recognizable architectural landmark. The proximity of Radcliffe's portrait to the building his generosity created gives this version a particular institutional significance: the Bodleian preserves both the books collected under his patronage's indirect influence and the image of the man whose fortune made it possible.

The portrait captures Radcliffe with the confident authority of a man at the height of his professional fame, Kneller's direct rendering of the physician's features conveying both medical authority and personal prosperity.