Portrait oil painting, of Watt James (1736-1819) ,Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the Industrial Revolution, by Wivell Abraham junior, 1856. Oil on canvas; 76x64cm oval, in gilt frame 98x86x8.5cm. After an original of 1801 by Sir W. Beechey, R.A. in the Birmingham Art Gallery. Signed and dated bottom left. Portrait, HS.

This portrait formed part of the Bennet Woodcroft Bequest, which was among the founding collections of the Science Museum. Woodcroft had developed a 'National Gallery of Portraits of Inventors, Discoverers and Introducers of the Useful Arts’ combining gifts, loans and purchases of portraits, while acting as the first curator of the Patent Museum.