National Galleries of Scotland

2001

PG 3282

The pharmacologist Sir James Black was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988. He is best known for developing the beta-blocker, used in the treatment of coronary heart disease and hypertension. George Devlin, a friend of the sitter, has shown Black at work, writing out the chemical formula of cimetidine, a drug which the artist was taking at the time he was painting the portrait.

• Material: Oil on canvas
• Size: 93.20 x 99.10 cm (framed: 118.30 x 123.50 x 6.00 cm)
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © George Devlin

2002

PG 3296

The men represented in this painting are professors in the Department of Surgery and Molecular Oncology at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee. The Head of Department and Professor of Surgery, Sir Alfred Cuschieri, is in the centre. Sir David Lane, Professor of Molecular Oncology is on the right. On the left is surgeon Professor Steele. All three men appear to have been disturbed in the middle of their duties: Professor Steele has blood on his hands and Sir Alfred Cuschieri is holding a medical implement. The luminous quality of the paint makes the figures look almost ghostly, expressing the sense of horror and anxiety associated with cancer.

• Material: Oil on canvas
• Size: 195.58 x 243.84 cm (framed: 202.00 x 248.00 x 5.00 cm)
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Ken Currie

1936

PG 1437

Baird was a prolific inventor, one of the leading pioneers of television. In 1923 he transmitted his first shadowy televised images in a rented room in Hastings. In 1926 he publicly demonstrated the world’s first recognisable television pictures. Two years later he transmitted the first trans-Atlantic television pictures from London to New York. He also developed colour television, stereoscopic (3D) television, and 'Noctovision' - television in darkness using infra-red light. Baird’s electro-mechanical television system was broadcast by the BBC from 1929-35. However, by early 1937 the BBC chose to adopt the rival Marconi-EMI television system. Baird’s later career was spent developing cinema television, stereoscopic television and high definition colour television.

• Material: Pencil on paper
• Size: 50.50 x 37.70 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Estate of James Kerr Lawson

Dated 1948

PG 1835

This bronze cast was acquired the year after Sir Alexander Fleming's death, although the original sculpture was created in 1948. By this time Fleming was an international celebrity, showered with honours and awards for his contribution to the discovery of penicillin and his pioneering research on its antibacterial properties. Twenty years earlier he had made the world-famous observation of a mould inhibiting the growth of bacteria, suspecting that the mould, Penicillum notatum, had accidentally entered his laboratory through an open window. Although Fleming was a shy man, the sculptor E Roland Bevan would have had ample opportunity to study his features, as he was his snooker partner - or opponent - at the Chelsea Arts Club for many years.

• Material: Bronze
• Size: Height: 28.90 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland

1950

PG 2698

John Boyd Orr was born at Kilmaurs, near Kilmarnock. A biologist specialising in nutrition, he showed the value of milk in the health and growth of children. This led to legistation to provide free milk for all children in Scottish schools. Orr continued to draw attention to the poor diet of the British people and lobbied, unsuccessfuly, for government to take a more active role, with a national food policy linked to agriculture. Orr became the first director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. In 1949 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

• Material: Bronze
• Size: Height: 30.00 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © By permission of the trustees of the late Benno Schotz RSA

2002

PGP 299.1

The Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh is a major international centre for research on the molecular and quantitative genetics of farm animals. This photograph is part of a series of four images which show the key members of the team that created Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. The series tracks the main stages of the cloning process. Here, Bill Richie, the Embryologist, is shown in the micro-manipulation lab. In the 1990s the photographer Wendy McMurdo was already exploring the idea of the perfect copy in relation to cloning, a parallel concern of the scientific world. As part of this commission McMurdo wanted to explore each person’s individual contribution to an event of great significance.

• Material: Colour photograph (laserchrome)
• Size: 115.00 x 115.00 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Wendy McMurdo

1927

PG 1089

As part of his research into liquid gases, chemist Sir James Dewar invented the Dewar flask, which was the forerunner of the Thermos flask. In order to maintain the low temperatures required to store gases that had been converted to liquids, Dewar employed a double-walled vessel with silver plating. This enclosed a vacuum, keeping out heat and ensuring the liquid gas could be stored for long enough to enable its properties to be discovered. Additionally, in 1898 Dewar was the first to collect liquid hydrogen, which is today used as a rocket fuel. This painting shows the chemist at work with a variety of his flasks. Unfortunately for him, Dewar did not acquire a patent for his invention and from 1904 the German firm Thermos began manufacturing insulated flasks.

• Material: Oil on canvas
• Size: 83.80 x 111.70 (framed: 107.80 x 135.60 x 9.50 cm)
• National Galleries of Scotland

Dated 1896

PG 681

Thomson was born in Belfast but moved to Glasgow when he was nine. As a student at the universities of Glasgow, Cambridge and Paris, he made his mark in mathematical physics. At twenty-two he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow where he set up the first university physics laboratory in Britain. Throughout his life he worked on thermodynamics – the science of energy and its conservation. His work establishing the value of absolute zero led to the scientific temperature scale being named the ‘Kelvin scale’ in his honour. Ever keen to apply his research to practical uses, Thomson supervised the laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable on the sea bed from 1857-66. For a number of decades he was recognised as the pre-eminent figure in the science world.

• Material: Bronze
• Size: Height: 72.40 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland