THOMAS SYDENHAM

Vintage restrike 8 3/4 inch x 13 1/2 inch engraving titled THOMAS SYDENHAM.

Portrait of Thomas Sydenham, bust directed to left but looking at the viewer, wearing draped coat and lace collar; in an architectural oval on a pedestal; a scroll, a book, an urn, medicinal plants and Aesculapius’ stick below.

Thomas Sydenham was an English physician. He was the author of Observationes Medicae which became a standard textbook of medicine for two centuries so that he became known as ‘The English Hippocrates’. Among his many achievements was the discovery of a disease, Sydenham’s Chorea, also known as St Vitus Dance.

Print by Jacob Houbraken (1698 – 1780).

Jacobus Houbraken was a Dutch engraver and the son of the artist and biographer Arnold Houbraken (1660–1719), whom he assisted in producing a published record of the lives of artists from the Dutch Golden Age.

After Sir Peter Lely (1618 – 1680). Sir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.

From Thomas Birch’s The Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain. The portraits featured in the series, which were engraved by Jacob Houbraken and George Vertue, were originally issued from 1737 onwards in portfolios of four portraits. Between 1743 and 1752, the series was published by John and Paul Knapton in London in the form of Birch’s The Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain, and contained biographies alongside the portraits.

Print size 16 inch x 20 inch

The engraving is in very good condition with a short tear in the left edge and minor age related toning. Reverse side blank.