Private Thomas Walker
Reproduction
Object numberRCSSC/P 228
CollectionSpecial collections
CategoryVisual works
Object nameOil paintings, Portraits, Genre scenes - medical practice
TitlePrivate Thomas Walker
DescriptionPortrait of Thomas Walker by Thomas William Wood, signed and dated, 1856.
The painting shows a man, facing to the left of the picture, sitting up in an iron-framed bed. He is wearing a clean white nightcap and nightgown and is propped up by two pillows, also in clean white covers. The sheets of the bed are turned down, and the lower part of the bed is covered by a quilted blanket made up of triangular patches of yellow, red, white and black fabric. On this quilt rests a red army uniform jacket with a white chevron on the lower part of the sleeve and a yellow cuff. A silver medal with a pale blue ribbon edged in gold is attached to the breast of the jacket - this is the Crimea medal. On top of the jacket is a dark infantryman's shako - a kind of cylindrical hat with a peak - which has '95' and a red and gold badge featuring a curved horn. The man holds a small section of red and black quilt in his left hand, and his right is pulling a needle and thread from the top of the piece he is stitching. On the sheet in front of him are scissors and more triangular sections of cloth. The colours of the quilt are the same as those of the uniform, making it clear where the material has come from. The status of the man as a patient is clear from a handwritten sign attached to the wooden panelling behind him: this reads 'Thos. Walker / Fractured skull / Inkermann' - thus giving us the name of the patient and the nature and source of his injury. A second panel is visible in the top left corner, above a bed which is only glimpsed. This reads 'Thos. W. Wood / pinxt / March 1856' - the name of the artist and the date of completion of the painting.
Thomas Walker was a Private in the 95th Regiment of Foot at the Battle of Inkerman in the Crimea in 1854. On the 5th of November Walker was wounded in the head by a shell burst. He was evacuated to the hospital at Scutari, and from there shipped back to Fort Pitt, Chatham. At some stage he underwent an operation to insert a silver plate to replace a piece of missing bone. Walker was one of the patients seen by Queen Victoria when she visited Fort Pitt on 3 March 1855, and is mentioned in her journal. It is likely that conditions in the Fort Pitt Hospital were good, at least when Victoria visited. However the painting also served a polemic function by representing an ideal scenario. It was made at a time when public outrage at the unsanitary conditions of hospitals in the Crimea had reached a level of frenzy. In contrast, this painting shows a model hospital, with fresh bedding and clean clothing, and with the convalescent patient engaged in a productive and useful activity. The painting was engraved and reproduced with details of the Queen's visit and accounts of Walker's case in several popular journals and newspapers at the time, earning Walker a brief moment of celebrity.
Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1855.
Production date 1856
Sitter/subject
presented
Wood Roberts, Thomas William (1948)
Physical Location
LocationOn display in the Hunterian Museum, Room 1: The Museum Collections
Physical Information
Physical descriptionOil on canvas, 54cm by 45cm. Framed dimensions 73cm height x 63cm width x 7.5cm depth.
Private Thomas Walker, 95th Regiment of Foot / (wounded at the battle of Inkerman, 1854) /Painted by THOMAS WILLIAM WOOD / Exhibited Royal Academy 1855 / Presented to the Royal College of Surgeons / by the Artist's nephew Alderman Thomas William Wood Roberts DL JP of Croydon January 1948
Bibliography
SourceWebb-Johnson 1948
NotesBrief article describing the portrait and the background to it.
SourceSmeaton 2008
NotesShort article describing a rug very similar to the one shown in the painting and believed to have been made by convalescent soldiers during the Crimean War. The painting is figured on p.11, (but incorrectly identified as the work of Thomas Waterman Wood, an American painter).
SourceFisher 2008
NotesShort biographical article on Private Thomas Walker, giving his dates and an account of his case. A copy of the painting (from Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper) is figured, along with a contemporary photograph showing Private Walker.
