Skip to main content
Menu

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, 2015

Sean Henry

Tim Berners-Lee (b. 1955) built his first computer at Oxford University with a soldering iron, a processor and an old television. He began his career in telecommunications before inventing the World Wide Web in 1989, which is widely regarded as the most transformative technological innovation of modern times. In 1994, he joined the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Cast in bronze and painted, the sculpture depicts Berners-Lee two-thirds life-size. The pose for the portrait is taken from a number of photographs Sean Henry took of his sitter walking outside, carrying the indispensable leather rucksack in which he keeps his laptop. Henry was interested in the paradox inherent in the impact of Berners-Lee’s world-changing invention and his self-effacing demeanour. His sculpted figures are usually anonymous, and in this portrait he has retained the idea of his subject as ‘everyman’ through the casual pose and his simply dressed appearance.

National Portrait Gallery, London Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery; made possible by J.P. Morgan through the Fund for New Commissions, 2014
© National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency