Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen

Portrait of Copernicus

copperplate engraving

ca 1815

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus made by Ernst Ludvig Riepenhausen showing a three-quarter-length figure of the astronomer looking slightly to the left. The inscription below is COPERNICUS. It is either a copy of the portrait formerly belonging to the Academic Gymnasium in Toruń or of a drawing by Theodorus de Bry. The engraver somewhat softened the sharp facial features typical of the earlier representations of the astronomer. This portrait was made in the first quarter of the 19th c.

Copernican Library in Toruń