Florence Nightingale receiving the Wounded at Scutari'

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© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Florence Nightingale receiving the Wounded at Scutari'

by Jerry Barrett
oil on canvas, 1856
16 in. x 24 1/8 in. (405 mm x 612 mm) overall
Purchased, 1963
Primary Collection
NPG 4305

Sittersback to top

Artistback to top

  • Jerry Barrett (1824-1906), Painter. Artist or producer associated with 9 portraits, Sitter in 4 portraits.

This portraitback to top

In this oil study, Barrett's composition for his finished painting is well-developed but there are significant differences in the pose of Nightingale herself and the positioning of Alexis Soyer and others grouped around her. The outstretched arm of the soldier being borne into the Hospital, which provides a dramatic focus in the large painting, is not yet developed.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG 6202: The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the Wounded at Scutari (finished work)

Linked publicationsback to top

Placesback to top

  • Place portrayed: Turkey (Scutari, Istanbul)

Events of 1856back to top

Current affairs

Queen Victoria introduces the Victoria cross, an award for British soldiers who displayed exceptional valour in battle. Each medal was produced from Russian guns captured in the British war. In 2006, Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry became the first living recipient of the Victoria Cross since 1965, for his actions in the Iraq war.

Art and science

The National Portrait Gallery is founded by Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl of Stanhope, Thomas Babington Macaulay, and Thomas Carlyle, all biographers and historians. Historical rather than artistic in focus, the Gallery's aim was to collect original portraits of outstanding figures from British history, notably from politics, the arts, literature and science.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning publishes her epic and autobiographical poem Aurora Leigh.

International

The Treaty of Paris ends the Crimean war. Russia concedes to the Anglo-French-Austrian Four Points of August 1854 including the guarantee of Ottoman sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia also agreed to a demilitarisation of the land islands in the Baltics, a term which lasted until the outbreak of the First World War.
Britain launches the second Opium war against China.

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