[John Locke] [art original].Vertue, George, 1684-1756, artist[ca. 1704]engTitle devised by curator.Date of production based on sitter's death date. This portrait was completed shortly before Locke's death, according to a contemporary annotation in ink on verso: This is a portrait of Mr. John Lock, author of the Letters on Toleration, the Essay on Human Understanding, on Coinage, & many other valuable pieces, sketch'd from a painting & afterwards (not long before his decease) finished up from the life, by George Vertue.One of eight portrait drawings that were probably among the works purchased by Horace Walpole at the Vertue sale of 1757. A volume of ca. 50 additional drawings from this collection, now bound in red morocco, has Walpole's manuscript title-page: Original drawings of heads, antiquities, monuments, views, &c. by George Vertue and others.Laid down on a wash-line mount, with a border of gold paint around the drawing.