Andrew Duncan, 1744 - 1828. President of the Royal Medical Society and of the Royal College of Physicians
About this artwork
Andrew Duncan is best known as a pioneer of the humane treatment of people with mental illness. It was the experience of seeing the young poet, Robert Fergusson, in great mental anguish, lying handcuffed in a cell on a bed of straw, that made Duncan determined to establish a public lunatic asylum. He obtained the charter for this and the asylum was eventually built, in Morningside, Edinburgh in 1807. Duncan helped bring about a change in the understanding of the nature of mental illness and the treatment of those affected by it. This pencil portrait captures Duncan with a slight smile, perhaps testament to his youthful nickname of the ‘smiling boy’. It is said he was known for his amicability throughout his life.
Updated before 2020
-
artist:John Brown (1749 - 1787) Scottish
-
title:Andrew Duncan, 1744 - 1828. President of the Royal Medical Society and of the Royal College of Physicians
-
date created:About 1780
-
materials:Pencil on paper
-
measurements:50.30 x 36.40 cm (framed 64.77 x 48.89 cm)
-
object type:
-
credit line:Gifted by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2009
-
accession number:PG 3601
-
gallery:
-
depicted:
-
subject:
John Brown
John Brown
Edinburgh-born Brown was the son of a jeweller and watchmaker and studied at the Trustees' Academy. He was in Italy from 1771 to 1780, working alongside Alexander Runciman and Henry Fuseli. Although influenced by his friends' romantic reaction to the past, Brown did not produce large narrative...