Half-length, standing; turned to the right, but facing in front. He
rests his left hand on a table, on which are an inkstand and a pen;
his right hand in front of him. He wears a plain black coat, with
part of his shirt showing; and he is without his wig, and shows his
long white hair.
This is one of Kneller's best portraits. It was evidently painted
in the philosopher's later years, for he looks here on the point of
dying of the asthma to which he succumbed in 1704. "Pray," said
Locke in a letter to Collins, "get Sir Godfrey to write on the back
of my picture 'John Locke;' it is necessary to be done, or else the
pictures of private persons are lost in two or three generations."