Portrait of: John Heaviside
By: Richard Earlom
After: J. Zoffany
Style: Mezzotint
Date: 1809
Dimensions: 37 x 52. 1 cm
John Heaviside (1748-1828), surgeon and museum proprietor was born in Hertfordshire. He was the apprentice of the surgeon Percivall Pott and in 1770 became thehouse surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. In 1790 he obtained thepost of Surgeon-Extraordinary to King George III and three years later thepost of Court of Assistant of the Company of Surgeons. He was elected a Fellowof the Royal Society in 1797. In 1793 Heaviside established a museum basedon the anatomical collection of the late Henry Watson. The collection grewto be one of the most valuable and extensive in Britain at the time. This portraitdepicts Heaviside demonstrating part of his anatomical collection, a heart.
