Strasbourg Portrait of Johannes Kepler

What it is

This oil-on-canvas portrait, known as the Strasbourg portrait, shows a bearded man in dark clothing with a white lace collar. Gold Latin inscriptions on the background name Johannes Kepler and Matthias Bernegger, a professor in Strasbourg, and give the date 1627. Bernegger, Kepler's friend, gave the painting to the library of the old University of Strasbourg that year. It later entered the collections of the Chapter of Saint-Thomas in Strasbourg.

Why it matters

This is said to be the only surviving painted likeness of Kepler, made near the end of his life. It shows how his friends and colleagues honoured him, and it is the image most historians rely on when picturing what Kepler looked like.

Look closer

• What does Kepler's clothing and pose suggest about his social status?
• Why might Bernegger have wanted to give this portrait to a library rather than keep it himself?
• What can't we learn about Kepler just from looking at a portrait like this?