Mead Dr

SIR GODFREY KNELLER & DR. RICHARD MEAD (1673-1754)

Richard Mead a discriminating collector - bought many of Kneller's paintings

and became friend. Mead sale (20-22 March, 1754) contained nine original

Knellers [see below] and one copy. Mead was a pallbearer at Kneller's

funeral in 1723: was buried at Twickenham, after being carried from his

house in great Queen Street to his house at Whitton, and from there carried

to and buried at Twickenham.

Mead's greatest contribution to medicine came as result of his appointment

of the lords justices to write suggestions for preventing the plague that

had broken out in Marseilles from coming to England, and the way in which it

should be treated if it did come. As a result of this treatise ('A Short

Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion and the Methods to be used to

Prevent It', 1720) he is sometimes considered the father of public health in

England. Was also renowned for having predicted the imminent decease of

Stuart Queen Anne - thus facilitating the Hanoverian accession of George I

on the very day of her death (this considered v. important to secure

succession, as Tory doctors kept claiming she wasn't going to die - in hope,

according to detractors, of causing constitutional crisis on unexpected

death) in August 1714; plus for close involvement (1721) with introduction

of inoculation into England - supervised experiment with seven convicts, at

request of Prince of Wales, with smallpox; all seven developed illness and

recovered; then were taken to centre of epidemic but remained immune; after

this, he supervised inoculation of daughters of Prince of Wales, which

greated aided acceptance of inoculation in this country.

Among his important patients were Sir Isaac Newton, King George II,

Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Robert Walpole.

Among his friends were Sir Hans Sloane, Dr. John Arbuthnot, Sir Samuel

Garth, Sir William Cheselden, Jonathan Swift, and many others of importance.

Samuel Johnson wrote that "Dr Mead lived more in the broad sunshine of lie

than almost any man", and biographer William Macmichael states that "after

his death it was said of him that of all physicians who had ever flourished,

he gained the most, spent the most, and enjoyed the highest fame during his

lifetime, not only in his own but in foreign countries". (Biography of

Physicians, 1850) Mead was also known as a a great bibliophile, and during

latter part of his life many volumes were dedicated to him, plus had library

that was second only to that of Sir Hans Sloane. Mead of equal importance in

art, and was alone among owners of art collections to give free admission to

his paintings, plus he employed two artists to work for the public, and,

through his being closely involved with retired sea captain Thomas Coram's

establishing of the Foundling Hospital, became in a sense a progenitor of

the British Academy of Arts.

Mead, Kneller & Foundling Hospital:

Although major credit for establishing the Foundling Hospital belongs to

Coram (who, returning to England in 1720, was repeatedly distressed by

number of deserted children he encountered on the road he made his daily

trip between Rotherhithe and the City), who after much lobbying finally

secured, with the governors of the Hospital for the Maintenance of Exposed

and Deserted Children, a royal charter in October 1739. First governors

included Mead and artist Hogarth, plus six dukes, eleven earls, and numerous

other peers and supporters. Mead apparently played important role from the

first in Foundling Hospital, urging Coram on his campaign during 1730s, and

was then one of the first contributors, and one of first general committee

of 50. At first hospital was set up in rented house in Hatton Garden, but

then moved to site northeast of Bloomsbury Square, where new building

erected: here Foundling Hospital properly established, and soon became

rather more than haven for unwanted children - probably due to Mead's

penchant for collecting art, and to Hogarth's early association with the

institution, the hospital soon launched a publicity campaign encouraging

artists to present pictures to be hung in the great hall as an attraction to

the public. In consequence, the history of the Foundling Hospital is closely

associated with that of the Royal Academy: was nowhere else in C18th London

that art students could view paintings free except Mead's house - as even

private collections exacted large fees or tips - so hospital was regarded by

Mead, Hogarth and others as place where art could be viewed for very small

fee. First paintings donated to the hospital's Picture Gallery were a

portrait of Thomas Coram by Hogarth, and portrait of Thomas Emerson, one of

hospital's governors, by Joseph Highmore. In 1746, Hogarth then contributed

his 'Moses Brought before Pharoah's Daughter', and as many leading British

artists began following his example, the hospital's collection was opened to

the publicf or a small admission fee. This public exhibition was, in a

sense, the beginning of the Royal Academy of Art. In addition to Hogarth,

the hospital numbered among its early supporters the sculptor Rysbrach,

Hudson, Highmore, Allan Ramsay, and landscape painter Richard Wilson. Among

pictures presented were Gainsborough's 'The Charter House' and the portrait

of Handel (who later became a governor and one of principal benefactors of

hospital, donating a copy of the score of the 'Messiah', which he played

there in 1749 and 1750) by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Was rather ironic that at

the time the Foundling Hospital was in some quarters accused of encouraging

both the production of bastards and of British art, neither of which enjoyed

much respectability in C18th-England.

Mead's Book & Art Collections:

Mead's library is best known from the catalogue of its sale on his death in

1754, which contained almost 10,000 items. Library was his greatest

possession, filled with choice manuscripts and books - including, e.g., a

second-folio Shakespeare that had been owned by Charles I and read by him

the night before his execution (this had been presented by Charles to the

master of his bedchamber, Sir Thomas Herbert, and then bought by Mead from

the Herbert family), and a first edition 'Christiani Restitutio liber inter

rariores longe rarissimus' by Servetus, belonging to Germain Collodon, the

Genevan lawyer who had conducted the prosecution of Servetus when he was

condemned to death (this in all probability the copy used at the trial, and

had some fire damage which some have interpreted as meaning was the very

copy snatched from flames when Servetus burned in 1553).

Although extremely impressive, Mead's library was rivalled by his other

collections. Had massive collection of statues, coins, prints and drawings,

plus throughout his life he employed several scholars and artists to

catalogue his acquisitions, which were then put on show free to the public.

He built a big extension on to his house in Great Ormond Street as a gallery

for his favourite furniture, pictures and antiquities, among the latter

including several pieces of ancient painting (e.g 'The Court of Augustus',

found in Rome in 1737), and a bronze head of Homer. His art collection

included nearly all major artists of time: Panini painted for him 'The

Landing of Aesculapius at Rome at the Time of the Plague', while Watteau,

suffering from consumption, had come to London to be treated by Mead, and

while in London he painted for Mead 'L'Amour Paisible' and the 'Comédiens

Italiens'. The catalogue of his paintings included 45 portraits by Holbein,

Titian (of Vesalius), Rubens (of Silenius, Sir Theodore Mayerne, and the

Earl of Arundel), Rembrandt (self-portrait), Frans Hals (self-portrait),

Ramsay, Richardson (of Alexander Pope), Walker (of Oliver Cromwell), and

several by Sir Godfrey Kneller (self-portrait, of John Locke, Sir Isaac

Newton, Mead's great friend Dr. John Radcliffe, and Edmund Halley), Bemel

(of Harvey), and Kent (of Inigo Jones), among others; 23 landscapes and sea

pieces by Claude G. Poussin, Rembrandt, Breughel, Salvator Rosa,

Vanderveldt, and others; 13 architectural and ruin pictures by Canaletto

('St Mark's' and the 'Grand Canal'), Paolo Panini ('Ruins of Rome'), and

Nicolas Poussin ('John Baptizing Jesus'); 14 Dutch still-lifes and animal

pictures; 55 historical pictures by Julio Ramonao, Paolo Veronese ('Angel

Descending from Heaven', and two pictures of the 'Marriage at Cana'), V.

Carracci, Rubens, Solimena, Van Dyck (a 'Magdalen'), Watteau, Bourdon,

Quercino, Teniers, N. Poussin, Borgognone, Barrichio, Palma Vecchio, Gerard

Don, Claude G. Poussin, Rembrandt, and Carlo Maratti ('The Holy Family');

plus among the remaining pictures were 5 copies and some sketches by

Raphael, and 'Erasmus' by Holbein (originally a present to Sir Thomas More).

In second sale, (13 Jan 1755) there were included 53 prints by Durer, 4 by

Hogarth, 3 by Rembrandt, 3 by Tintoretto, and 7 by Raphael; 2 drawings by

Durer, 7 by Andrea del Sarto, and 2 each by Michelangelo, Giotto, Raphael,

Holbein, Van Dyck, and Rubens; plus 9 etchings by Corregio - and original

anatomical drawings by Vesalius. Coins and medals were sold separately, as

were his large collection of curios.