Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking (1942-2018), Theoretical Physicist.

In the 1980s, encouraged by Margaret Gowing (who was both a Trustee and an historian of science), the Gallery embarked on an active policy of commissioning portraits of scientists, on the grounds that science and technology make a contribution to British culture which is not always well understood by the general public. One of the first such commissions was of Stephen Hawking, who at the time was known only to specialists for his distinguished work on relativity. It was only in 1988 that Hawking became universally known as the author of A Brief History of Time.