Tag: Thomas Gainsborough
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John Hunter, his wolf dogs, and the inherited smiles of Pomeranians
Stephen Martin United Kingdom Fig 1. Title of Hunter’s Royal Society wolf dogs paper. © Author, from original, CC-BY 4.0 John Hunter, 1728-1793, was a polymathic doctor. Besides being an anatomist and clinician, he was also interested in early genetics, exemplified by his “Observations tending to shew that the Wolf, Jackal, and Dog, are…
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Longitudinal lunacy: Science and madness in the eighteenth century
Richard de Grijs Sydney, Australia Daniel Vuillermin Beijing, China Interior of Bethlem Royal Hospital, from A Rake’s Progress by William Hogarth. The poor soul in the background is trying to solve the longitude problem. “A couple of young Non conformist preachers from Worksop in the North of Derbyshire came thither to have my approbation…
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Dr. Ralph Schomburg, a fashionable physician
This painting by Thomas Gainsborough is from the National Gallery in London. It shows the physician, Dr. Ralph Schomburg (1714–1792). While residing in Bath, Dr. Schomburg attended on Gainsborough himself as well as on his daughters. Story has it that Gainsborough painted this portrait in lieu of paying the doctor’s fee. It is reported that…