Andrew Duncan, 1744 - 1828. President of the Royal Medical Society and of the Royal College of Physicians
About this artwork
Andrew Duncan was a respected physician, lecturer and an important institutional innovator in the field of medicine. After finishing his medical studies in 1768, Duncan travelled to China as a surgeon on board an East India Company ship. He returned to Scotland the following year and joined the Edinburgh College of Physicians as a lecturer. Although repeatedly passed over for professorships, he was elected six times as President of the Royal Medical Society. His interest in public health led him to establish Edinburgh’s Royal Public Dispensary, which gave free medicines and advice to the poor. He later founded a public lunatic asylum. In 1790 he was elected President of the Royal College of Physicians and was finally appointed to the University’s chair of Institutes of Medicine.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Sir John Watson Gordon (1788 - 1864) Scottish
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title:Andrew Duncan, 1744 - 1828. President of the Royal Medical Society and of the Royal College of Physicians
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date created:1825
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materials:Oil on canvas
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measurements:240.00 x 151.10 cm; Framed: 269.50 x 179.00 x 8.00 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Private Collection on long term loan to the National Galleries of Scotland
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accession number:PGL 258
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gallery:
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depicted:
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subject:
Sir John Watson Gordon
Sir John Watson Gordon
John Watson Gordon was training to become an army engineer when, encouraged by his uncle, the painter, George Watson, and Raeburn, who was a family friend, he decided to become an artist. His first works were subject pictures but, after Raeburn's death in 1823, he established himself as the leading portrait painter in Scotland. His style was at first closely based on Raeburn but was later more influenced by his admiration for Velázquez. In 1850 he was elected President of the Royal Scottish Academy, appointed Queen's Limner for Scotland and knighted.
