Portrait of Mr. William P. C. Barton, Professor of Botany, Physician, and Botanist
William James Hubard, American (born England), 1807 - 1862
Made in United States, North and Central America
Date:
1831Medium:
Oil on panelDimensions:
20 1/2 x 14 3/4 inches (52.1 x 37.5 cm)Curatorial Department:
American Art
* Gallery 104, American Art, first floor (Sherrerd Gallery)
Accession Number:2009-77-1Credit Line:
Purchased with the Center for American Art Fund, and with funds contributed by Ranney Moran, 2009
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botany [x] landscape [x] nature [x] nhd 1815 to 1860 portrait [x] philadelphia [x] plants [x] portrait [x] science [x]William P. C. Barton--distinguished botanist, botanical illustrator, professor, and medical doctor--combined art and science in his work. He wrote about the usefulness of his "own habitual freedom in the use of the pencil and the brush" in translating his scientific observations into visual images.
Barton is shown here on one of his rambles through the outskirts of Philadelphia in search of new botanical specimens. Samuel Gross, his student at Jefferson Medical College and later the subject of Thomas Eakins's masterpiece The Gross Clinic, fondly remembered these excursions. Gross reminisced that Barton "experienced as great delight in the discovery of a new plant as Audubon did at the sight of an undescribed bird."
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