Help finding a better version of this seemingly rare Boston portrait.

[Regi Addictissimus]

I have never seen this portrait of Boston until today. Has anyone seen it before? It appears to be a crop of a larger image. I would appreciate any help in tracking down a better version. Thanks.

Thomas Boston crop

 

[Taylor]

Is this an actual portrait, or could it be a reimagining of an older portrait?

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

Is this an actual portrait, or could it be a reimagining of an older portrait?

I am honestly not sure. As I have searched and search with no avail, my guess it is a reinterpretation. It could be a digital painting. It is hard to tell with this crop.

 

[Taylor]

The only website that a reverse image search on Google turns up is this one.

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

The only website that a reverse image search on Google turns up is this one.

Thanks. I tried a reverse image finder as well, with no success. Thanks for looking.

 

[Tom Hart]

Just here to say that it doesn't look contemporary. I expect it's a modern artist's interpretation based on this portrait.

At a guess, the image in the OP is from a biographical entry on some Puritan-friendly website.

 

[Taylor]

Just here to say that it doesn't look contemporary. I expect it's a modern artist's interpretation based on this portrait.
View attachment 6536

That portrait there is the reason I asked if it might be a reimagined portrait.

 

[Tom Hart]

I have never seen this portrait of Boston until today. Has anyone seen it before? It appears to be a crop of a larger image. I would appreciate any help in tracking down a better version. Thanks.
View attachment 6535

Where did you encounter this cropped image?

 

[C. M. Sheffield]

The only website that a reverse image search on Google turns up is this one.

That link also has portraits of Isaac Watts and George Whitfield that I've never seen before.

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

Just here to say that it doesn't look contemporary. I expect it's a modern artist's interpretation based on this portrait.

Boston is always wearing a similar outfit. I am almost positive it an artist's interpretation. My question is as to the origins.

Where did you encounter this cropped image?

I am struggling to find the site and do not have much time to search at the moment.

 

[Tom Hart]

Boston is always wearing a similar outfit. I am almost positive it an artist's interpretation. My question is as to the origins.

I am struggling to find the site and do not have much time to search at the moment.

There is the possibility that the website from which you retrieved the image has expired. Still, it's a bit odd that neither the full image nor the cropped one shows up anywhere.

 

[Edward]

A more recent photo of Thomas Boston here:
https://www.iac.gatech.edu/people/faculty/boston

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

I remember where I came across it. It was on the Chapel Library website.

https://www.chapellibrary.org/literature

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

I have also never come across this Edwards portrait.

 

[CathH]

The Thomas Boston one could well be Thomas Boston Junior, son of the Thomas Boston who wrote the Fourfold State?

There is a sort of postscript after the Introduction to the Memoirs of Thomas Boston which begins:
"There has been no little confusion concerning Boston's likeness. In M'Kerrow's Hist. Sec. Ch. Introd. Narrative (1845), 33, and in Dr. Andrew Thomson's Life of Boston, frontispiece, a likeness is given of Thomas Boston of Ettrick. It seems highly probable that that likeness is that of Thomas Boston junior, and that another portrait (of which a copy hangs side by side with the former in the vestry of the Boston U.P. Church, Jedburgh) is Boston senior. This latter appears as frontispiece to the 1813 edition of Boston's Communion Discourses, etc., and is reproduced in this edition of the Memoirs. All Boston authorities are agreed that this is Boston senior. Ettrick tradition points to the same conclusion. And such of Boston's descendants as have interested themselves in the matter have been convinced that the likeness we give is the right one." (p xxxvi)

This is from the 1988 Banner of Truth edition, which is the "New Edition with introduction and notes by the Rev. George H. Morrison, M.A., Dundee" dated 1899.

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

The Thomas Boston one could well be Thomas Boston Junior, son of the Thomas Boston who wrote the Fourfold State?

There is a sort of postscript after the Introduction to the Memoirs of Thomas Boston which begins:
"There has been no little confusion concerning Boston's likeness. In M'Kerrow's Hist. Sec. Ch. Introd. Narrative (1845), 33, and in Dr. Andrew Thomson's Life of Boston, frontispiece, a likeness is given of Thomas Boston of Ettrick. It seems highly probable that that likeness is that of Thomas Boston junior, and that another portrait (of which a copy hangs side by side with the former in the vestry of the Boston U.P. Church, Jedburgh) is Boston senior. This latter appears as frontispiece to the 1813 edition of Boston's Communion Discourses, etc., and is reproduced in this edition of the Memoirs. All Boston authorities are agreed that this is Boston senior. Ettrick tradition points to the same conclusion. And such of Boston's descendants as have interested themselves in the matter have been convinced that the likeness we give is the right one." (p xxxvi)

This is from the 1988 Banner of Truth edition, which is the "New Edition with introduction and notes by the Rev. George H. Morrison, M.A., Dundee" dated 1899.

That is very helpful information. Thank you.
I found the frontspiece below in an 1812 edition of his Memoirs. My guess this is the same one they are speaking of. The portrait below is the most common.

 

[CathH]

Yes, that one from 1812 is reproduced in the 1899 (BoT 1988) edition.

According to George D Low:
"The portrait of Boston has been furnished by Mr James Hay Thin of this city, from a print which has been preserved for many years by that branch of Boston's family to which Mrs Thin belongs."
("This city" = Edinburgh)
George D Low published Boston's writings, A General Account of My Life, from the original manuscript, in 1908.

But where it is now is anybody's guess. The Boston memorial church in Jedburgh no longer exists, and whatever was hanging in the vestry hasn't been traced.

(I'm only relaying all this info from my husband, a goldmine of all sorts of Scottish church history pub quiz trivia!)

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

Yes, that one from 1812 is reproduced in the 1899 (BoT 1988) edition.

According to George D Low:
"The portrait of Boston has been furnished by Mr James Hay Thin of this city, from a print which has been preserved for many years by that branch of Boston's family to which Mrs Thin belongs."
("This city" = Edinburgh)
George D Low published Boston's writings, A General Account of My Life, from the original manuscript, in 1908.

But where it is now is anybody's guess. The Boston memorial church in Jedburgh no longer exists, and whatever was hanging in the vestry hasn't been traced.

(I'm only relaying all this info from my husband, a goldmine of all sorts of Scottish church history pub quiz trivia!)

Tell your husband that I appreciate the information. It is beneficial for leads. I have a great love for Scottish Presbyterians, so I respect those well-versed in their history.

 

[CathH]

Tell your husband that I appreciate the information. It is beneficial for leads. I have a great love for Scottish Presbyterians, so I respect those well-versed in their history.

I'll tell him!