Percivall Pott (1713-1788)
Reproduction
Object numberRCSSC/P 193
CollectionSpecial collections
CategoryVisual works
Object nameOil paintings, Portraits
TitlePercivall Pott (1713-1788)
DescriptionPortrait of Percivall Pott by George Romney, unsigned, 1788.
Half length to right; with his left arm resting on a table with three books behind it, and a scroll of paper in his left hand. He wears a plum-coloured velvet coat with matching buttons, and a waistcoat open to show a white cravat and shirt-frill. His short grey wig has a black silk bow behind the neck.
Pott began his career as an apprentice to Edward Nourse the younger in 1729. Nourse was active as a lecturer in anatomy and surgery, and Pott assisted with the preparation of dissections for Nourse's lectures. In 1736 Pott gained the Grand Diploma of the Company of Barber-Surgeons. With growing expertise and practice he applied for a post as assistant surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital and, after an initial failure, was successful in 1745; he was appointed full surgeon to the hospital in 1759. In 1753 Pott and William Hunter were elected the first lecturers in anatomy to the new Company of Surgeons. Pott became a member of the court of examiners in 1763, and master of the Company in 1765. Pott wrote a number of surgical monographs and was influential as a teacher of surgery, lecturing first privately and later at St Bartholomew's Hospital. John Hunter was one of his pupils.
Romney was born and died in the northeast of England but made his name in London as a fashionable society portraitist, rivalling Reynolds and Gainsborough. After training in Kendal under Cumberland artist Christopher Steele, he later travelled to Italy with fellow artist Ozias Humphrey to study art in Rome.
The donor’s letter describes this portrait as ‘the last for which Mr Pott sat.’ H. Ward and W. Roberts ‘Romney’ (1904, 2, 125) record that Pott sat to Romney in 1781-83 and 1786; J H Pott paid Romney £21 in September 1788 and the portrait was sent to him the same month; a second portrait was sent to him by Romney on 3 January 1790, and he paid £21 as “three-quarters” on 11 January.
Production date 1788
Sitter/subject
presented
Pott, J H (1817)
Related objectsMS0071
Physical Location
Location
Not on public display: contact museum for access conditions
Physical Information
Physical descriptionOil on canvas, 74cm by 61cm. In gilt wooden frame, glazed, 94cm by 82cm.
