Robert Short with his 'stone'

Made:
1820 in Europe and London
maker:
Unattributed
artist:
William Richardson
Robert Short with his 'stone' Robert Short with his 'stone' Robert Short with his 'stone'

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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Robert Short with his 'stone'
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Portrait: Robert Short (1714- ?), Medical curiosity, plate from ... Remarkable Persons ...by James Caulfield [1820 edition], engraved by William Richardson. Print, engraving 23x14.5cm. Portrait, HL to R, standing by table, on which features the large stone extracted from him by surgery

Robert Short (1714-?) was regarded as a medical curiosity. He is pictured here with an abnormally large stone (a hard mass formed in the body) that was surgically removed at St Thomas’ Hospital. From childhood and into adulthood he experienced such stones, but his family and friends could not afford the cost of surgery and had to appeal to charity. When a stone was eventually removed from his body it measured more than 20 cm in diameter. The case was believed to be so extraordinary “that a portrait of the man was engraved with an exact representation of the stone”. This account can be found in James Caulfield’s 'Portraits, Memoirs, and Characters of Remarkable Persons from the Revolution in 1688 to the reign of George II', vol 4, (London, 1820), p158.

Details

Category:
Art
Object Number:
1987-67
Materials:
paper
Measurements:
overall: 230 mm x 145 mm
type:
print and portrait
credit:
Watkins, R.G.