William Hunter

Inscriptionback to top

Obverse inscribed: GVL.HVNTER . ANATOMICVS. and below: BURCH.FEC.
Reverse inscribed: OLIM./MEMINISSE./IVVABIT. [Virgil, Aen., I, 203] and date 1774.

This portraitback to top

The size and style recall earlier Florentine medallists such as Soldani and Selvi, examples of whose work were bought by Hunter and remain in the Hunterian Museum. [1] Burch also made wax écorchés for Hunter. [2]

Footnotesback to top

1) Compare Spink, Important Collection of Renaissance and Baroque Medals and Plaquettes, 1996, no.515.
2) See M. Kemp ed., Dr William Hunter at the Royal Academy of Arts, 1975, pls.8, 9, pp 16-17.

Referenceback to top

Brown 1980
L. Brown, A Catalogue of British Historical Medals 1760-1960: The Accession of George III to the Death of William IV, 1980, no.188.

Provenanceback to top

Purchased from Mrs Neddy Allen 1988.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for William Hunter