This bust of Mead is located in the British Museum which does not charge an admission fee. The Museum does, however, permit non-flash photography.
The Museum's website (
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"Made by Louis François Roubiliac...
Description
Plaster portrait bust of Dr Richard Mead MD (1673-1754) by Louis-François Roubiliac (1702-62), slightly to left, head bare, wearing a robe in classical style which hangs over his left shoulder.
Inscriptions
Inscription Type: mark
Inscription Position: reverse
Inscription Content: 21
Inscription Comment: incised
Dimensions
Width: 54.8 centimetres (max)
Height: 61.5 centimetres...
Condition
Damage to surface visible in photograph of 1928 or before (published by Esdaile, 1928, pl.XXXIIa); some loss of surface in five places on neck and drapery filled in (December 1994, when surface was cleaned).
Curator's comments
Dawson 1999
Literature: E. Beresford Chancellor, The Lives of the British Sculptors, and those who have worked in England from the earliest days to Sir Francis Chantrey, London, 1911, pp. 123-4; K. A. Esdaile, 'Studies of the English sculptors from Pierce to Chantrey. XIII. Louis François Roubiliac (1695-1762) continued', Architect, 16 June 1922, p. 450; K. A. Esdaile, The Life and Works of Louis François Roubiliac, Oxford and London, 1928, pp. 103-5, 111-12, 120, 177, 184, pl. XXXIIa; J. Kerslake, National Portrait Gallery, Early Georgian Portraits, London, 1977, p. 185.
Displayed: 1817, over the bookcases in the Print Room (formerly in Mr Baber's department, note from J. T. Smith, 17 November 1817, P&D Archive, Trustees' Reports); 1847, probably still in the Print Room (BM Archive, Officers' Reports, Sir Henry Ellis, 3 June 1847); 1884, over the cases in the Glass and Ceramic Gallery (Guide, 1888, p. 18); 1922, 'in private rooms' (Esdaile, 1922, XIII, p. 451); c. 1960, Keeper's study, P&D (MLA Dept slip catalogue); c.1975, Keeper's study, MLA Dept; 1994, Gallery 46 'Europe 1400-1800'.
Dr Richard Mead was born in Stepney, London, the son of a Nonconformist minister. He was educated at Eton and went to Holland when his father fled to avoid religious persecution. He attended the universities of Utrecht (where he studied under Graevius) and Leyden, then he travelled to Italy, graduating MD from Padua in 1695. He practised in Stepney from 1696. In 1703, after the publication of his highly acclaimed Mechanical Account of Poisons, he was appointed physician and lecturer in anatomy to St Thomas's Hospital and Fellow of the Royal Society. Admitted a Fellow of the College of Physicians in 1716, he was elected its President in 1744. In 1715 he moved to Dr John Radcliffe's house in Bloomsbury Square, and succeeded to much of Radcliffe's practice. Alexander Pope (see registration no. 1762,0528.10) consulted him, as did Queen Anne, King George I, King George II, Sir Isaac Newton (see registration nos 1765,0629.1, SLMisc.1984 and SLMisc.1985) and Sir Robert Walpole. His collection of books, manuscripts, statuary, coins, gems and drawings was one of the largest formed in his time,(1) and he allowed anyone who wished to do so to examine his books, medals and sculpture in his purpose-built gallery at his later residence in Great Ormond Street. As Malcolm Baker has remarked, Mead used busts to furnish his library.(2) A monument to Dr Mead by Scheemakers is in Westminster Abbey.(3) Dr Maty's biography of Dr Mead was published in 1755.(4)
The marble bust of Mead by Roubiliac was given to the Royal College of Physicians in 1756 by Dr Anthony Askew (1722-74), who had commissioned it after Mead's death. Esdaile(5) claimed that Roubiliac had agreed to sculpt the bust for £50, but when Askew, who was pleased with the result, offered £100 for it, he sent him a bill for £108-2s, which he duly paid.
George Edwardes remarked on the physical resemblance of the bust to the sitter.(6) It seems possible that Roubiliac used as his source a portrait of Mead by Arthur Pond, engraved by Pond, which Mead himself disliked. This appears to correspond with two portraits, one of about 1739, the other dated 1743, both showing him without wig.(7) The main difference between the Roubiliac bust and the Pond portraits is that the sculptor has substituted a classical style drapery for the loose shirt and dark coat, trimmed with gold embroidery in the 1743 version.
A pencil drawing in the Harris Museum, Preston, inscribed Roubiliac and Dr. Mead/508 and Dr. Mead on the mount at the left (see Dawson 1999, p. 142, fig. 38), shows the sitter in the same drapery, without wig, on a shaped pedestal. The drawing is attributed to Nollekens, and, as Malcolm Baker has stated, it was 'done either in Roubiliac's studio or, most likely, at the time of the [sculptor's] sale'.(8)
Mead was also portrayed by the painters Allan Ramsay(9) and Jonathan Richardson,(10) as well as in wax and ivory by the carver Silvanus Bevan (1691-1765)(11) and in jasper by Josiah Wedgwood around 1778-9....
The significance of the incised number 21 is unknown.
At least two coatings have been applied to the sandy yellowish-colour plaster, which is visible under the truncation at the left where the coating has been lost.
The sitter is shown in classical guise, his head turned slightly to proper left. Like other contemporaries of the sculptor, Mead is shown without wig. He is bald except for scanty hair at the sides, which is longer at the back. His robe leaves his neck and part of his chest bare, and is draped in folds over his left shoulder. The pupils of the small eyes are lightly indicated, and the lids shown. The modelling of the fleshy face and rather pendulous chin, as well as numerous wrinkles around the eyes, is meticulous, but it is the mouth which is most expressive, conjuring up both the sitter's determination and his humour."
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