After Newton and Babbage, our focus today is on the remaining likenesses of astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630). Kepler was born as the child of an innkeeper’s daughter and a mercenary who abandoned his family when Johannes was merely five years old. This setting is not one where parents would have their children’s portraits created. In reality, there are very few depictions of Johannes Kepler, and the origins of most are unknown; some are clearly made posthumously, and we cannot ascertain whether they are based on a preexisting image or merely the artist’s creativity.
One contemporary painting exists by German artist Hans van Aachen (1552–1615), a prominent figure in Northern Mannerism. It is described as a portrait of a young man believed to be Johannes Kepler, though the attribution remains uncertain.
Another portrait in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence is labeled Johannes Keplerus, but the artist’s identity and the date of its creation are unknown. It is, however, associated with the seventeenth century.
Additionally, there is a nineteenth-century engraved portrait by English watercolourist and architectural draughtsman Frederick Mackenzie (1787–1854), currently housed in the Smithsonian Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology. The caption reads: From a Picture in the Collection of Godefrey Kraemer Merchant of Ratisbon. Ratisbon serves as an English alternative name for Regensburg, the city where Kepler passed away and was interred.
The Dibner also possesses a replica of the Uffizi Kepler engraving, alongside a profile portrait that is undated.
Included in the Dibner is an engraving of a portrait of Johannes Kepler derived from a 1620 painting that was donated to the Strasbourg Library in 1627, with the artist remaining unknown. A painting from 1910, inspired by this engraving, can be found in the Kepler-Museum in Weil der Stadt, Kepler’s birthplace, created by German painter August Köhler (1881–1964).
Amidst the uncertainty surrounding the various representations of Kepler, the most astonishing revelation is that a striking portrait owned by a Benedictine monastery in Kremsmünster, Austria, previously believed to depict Kepler and painted in 1610, is now thought to have been rendered in the nineteenth century and likely does not represent Kepler at all. I have used it multiple times in previous posts about Kepler, but no longer do so.
Addenda 31.12.2025
In the comments, Laura accurately pointed out that I had omitted the wedding portraits of Barbara and Johannes Kepler. Unable to locate any information regarding these portraits online, I consulted Professor Aviva Rothman, Inaugural Dean’s Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Case Western Reserve University, who specializes in Kepler and is currently penning a new biography of him. She guided me to the paper The Fate of Kepler’s Handwritten Heritage by Irina Tunkina in Culture and Cosmos Vol. 25, Spring/Summer & Autumn/Winter 2021. Tunkina states:
“In 1876, the Pulkovo Observatory acquired the family treasures from the direct descendants of Kepler’s first wife, Barbara Müller von Mülek (the sisters Emma, Ottilie and Augusta Schnieber) for 400 marks. These were added to the collection. There was a pair of miniature oil portraits of Johannes and Barbara Kepler from 1597, made during their lifetime.”