Dr. Maurice Morrison

Artist John Neagle (American, 1796-1865)

Date1841

DimensionsFrame: 37 1/4 × 33 1/2 × 2 3/4 in. (94.6 × 85.1 × 7 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1944.31

Not on View

Label TextPainter John Neagle, who was based in Philadelphia, specialized in portraits of the professional class—doctors, lawyers, clergy, politicians. The subject of this portrait, shown as an educated man posing in his library, is believed to be surgeon Dr. Maurice Morrison (1807–1842). Morrison holds a thick tome, prominently displaying its title: Sir A. Cooper’s Lectures, an edition of the papers of British surgeon, essayist, and lecturer Sir Astley Cooper (1768–1841). Morrison received his M.D. from the University of Maryland and apparently spent the 1830s in Buenos Aires, Argentina, studying malaria. Ironically, he died of the disease in Havana, Cuba, a year after this portrait was painted.Published ReferencesThe Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 107, Sept. 1944, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 85-86, pl. 29.