Oslerians and the Rolls Park portrait of William Harvey

摘要

The copy of the Rolls Park portrait of William Harveyndepicted here carries a distinguished Oslerian prove-nnance. In 1903 William Osler, having been offered anportrait he felt was not ‘genuine’, expressed hisnintention to explore Harvey portraiture. As presidentnof the newly formed Council of the Historical Sectionnof the Royal Society of Medicine, Osler was the primenmover behind the first definitive account of thenportraiture of William Harvey, published in 1913nunder the direction of Sir D’Arcy Power. Sir GeoffreynKeynes, who with Power was instrumental in found-ning the Osler Club of London, concluded in 1948 thatna portrait of Harvey at Rolls Park was paintednbetween 1620 and 1625, shortly after the publicationnof Harvey’s De Motu Cordis. In 1960, this portrait wasnillegally exported to the United States of America,nwhere it was purchased by Dr Myron Prinzmetal, anLos Angeles cardiologist. When Prinzmetal’s familyndecided to sell it, Dr William Gibson of Vancouver,nBritish Columbia, a charter member of the AmericannOsler Society, launched a successful effort to buy itnand return it to England. On 22 February 1977, thenreturn of the Rolls Park portrait was celebrated at thenNational Portrait Gallery, London, in time for Key-nnes’s 90th birthday. Dr Alex Sakula (1917–2003), anmember of the Osler Club of London and of thenAmerican Osler Society, arranged to have this copynpainted by Philippa Abrahams, a London-born artistnand a diplomat of the Slade School. The Rolls Parknportrait is now believed to be the best likeness ofnWilliam Harvey painted from life. The copy preparedfor me by Mrs Abrahams is to my knowledge the onlyncopy in existence.