Maggi Hambling, Dorothy Hodgkin, 1985, Oil on canvas, 36 3/4 x 30 in. (932 x 760 mm) , National Portrait Gallery, London Collection
This portrait of chemist and crystallographer Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910 - 1994) was painted by artist Maggi Hambling in 1985, when the sitter was seventy-five years old. Commissioned by London’s National Portrait Gallery, the work was first exhibited that year alongside a portrait of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.
Hodgkin is depicted at her desk, in her Warwickshire home, absorbed in research, almost buried among her papers and books, her hands a flurry with movement. Four bonded molecules of insulin make up the dynamic multi-colored balsa wood model in the painting’s left foreground; nearby is a black wireframe structure representing Vitamin B12. Dorothy’s shapeless, loose-fitting cardigan, unkempt hair, and the general disorder of her space offer little indication of the scientist’s stature as “the Darwin of the 20th century,” as one colleague described her.
Dorothy’s work as a chemist began in the 1930s with x-ray crystallography, a relatively new scientific field. Demonstrating unbounded determination and curiosity over a sixty-year span, she pioneered the imaging of atomic and molecular structures, producing key findings on vitamins, proteins, and hormones. Her process required thousands of calculations, mostly done on paper, in a pre-computing era. Known as the unparalleled authority on mapping previously unsolved molecules, she took on challenges that others considered impossible. Her groundbreaking work bridged crystallography and biological chemistry, leading to wide-ranging discoveries that continue to be built upon to this day.
In 1964, Hodgkin became the third woman to receive the Nobel Prize in chemistry for her extensive research on Vitamin B12, and, in 1969, after concentrating on the compound for thirty-four years, she uncovered the structure of insulin. Throughout her extensive career, Dorothy also taught and mentored generations of young chemists. She was especially known for her support of female students and colleagues because of her own experiences dealing with gender discrimination.
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