Portrait of: Edward Jenner
Style: etching
Dimensions: 35 x 43.4 cm
Edward Jenner (1749-1823), surgeon and pioneer of smallpox vaccination, was born in Gloucestershire. He trained at St George's Hospital, London, asa student of John Hunter. He received his MD in 1792 from the University ofSt Andrews. He made his first vaccination in 1796, publishing his findingsin 1798, however it took a decade for the government to accept his theory.Despite this, the National Vaccine Establishment was founded in 1808 and by1853 vaccination had become compulsory in Britain. Jenner became a fellow ofthe Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
Jenner’s dress in this portrait is draped in a way reminiscent of the toga.For the Romans the toga was worn by the ruling classes as a form of public dresssymbolising power, nationality, and masculinity. The toga was impractical towear and the act of wearing it was considered a skill, which required trainingand assistance from servants. The toga was therefore a symbolic form of publicdress rather than a practical outfit and was alluded to in many portraits ofthe long Eighteenth Century.
