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Painting of Joseph Bell

This week’s object is a portrait of Joseph Bell. In the portrait, Bell is wearing the robes that featured as last week’s object. This particular portrait of Bell was painted in 1896 by George Fiddes Watt. Bell, like many other 19th century surgeons, started his surgical career as a House Surgeon with James Syme and was his special assistant for five years. After demonstrating in Anatomy under John Goodsir he was appointed as an extra-academical Lecturer in Surgery and then in Clinical Surgery before he became the first surgeon to the newly created Department of Surgery in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in 1887. Prior to that time most operations on children were carried out in the Royal Infirmary.