WILLIAM HARVEY

Vintage restrike 8 7/8 inch x 14 1/8 inch engraving titled WILLIAM HARVEY M.D..

Portrait of William Harvey; half length, to the left, looking at viewer; wearing gown and white collar; in oval frame with ornaments, including painting of the heart and blood vessels, a snake wrapped around a log, and books.

William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made seminal contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the brain and body by the heart, though earlier writers, such as Realdo Colombo, Michael Servetus, and Jacques Dubois, had provided precursors of the theory. In 1973, the William Harvey Hospital was constructed in the town of Ashford, a few miles from his birthplace of Folkestone.

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 Jacob van Bemmel (1628 – 1673).

This portrait of William Harvey is 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 1/4 inch

The engraving is in very good condition with age related toning. Reverse side blank.