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| Artist | After Bemmel, Wilhelm von (Dutch painter and draftsman, 1630-1708) |
| Title | William Harvey |
| Date earliest | possibly about 1700 |
| Date latest | possibly about 1800 |
| Material | oil on canvas |
| Measurements | 74 x 60 cm (estimate) |
| Description | A half-length portrait of William Harvey (1578-1657). Court physician to James I and Charles I, he is famous for discovering the circulation of blood; his De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis, published in 1628, identified the heart as a pump, central to the flow of blood. This is a copy, or adaptation, of the original in the Hunterian Collection, Glasgow, depicting Harvey with a book of anatomy with a view of Rome behind him, attributed to Wilhelm von Bemmel. |
| Subject | portrait (Harvey, William) |
| Collection | St Bartholemew´s Hospital Museum, London |
| Current accession number | X/7/60 |
| Acquisition details | Acquired from Sir Robert Wilmot 1937. |
| Provenance | Dr Mead; Sir Arthur Wilmot of Alresford, Essex; by descent to Sir Robert Wilmot. |
| Principal publications | Keynes, G., The Portraiture of William Harvey, 1949, pp. 32-33. |
| Notes |
Originally on loan from Sir Robert Wilmot, since he died in 1975 and the painting was not reclaimed, it is now hospital property by default. Painting was in the Treasurers room in 1978, and has been in the James Gibb flat since 1980. |
| Rights status | St Bartholomew's Hospital Archives and Museum |
| Author | Malcolm Barclay |
