Sir Astley Paston Cooper (1768–1841)

The Wellcome Collection version of Lawrence's Astley Cooper portrait belongs to one of the world's most significant medical history collections, assembled by Sir Henry Wellcome's extraordinary pharmaceutical fortune into a comprehensive documentation of medicine, science, and the human body. Cooper was painted by Lawrence multiple times, and this second version documents the demand for images of the era's most celebrated surgeon from institutions that collected medical portraiture alongside instruments, specimens, and texts. The Wellcome Collection's context transforms the portrait from a social document into a piece of medical history: Cooper's surgical achievements — the ligature of the abdominal aorta, the innovations in hernia repair, the anatomical teaching at Guy's Hospital — are the primary significance in this institutional setting rather than the social standing that commissioned portraiture typically prioritized. Lawrence's ability to suggest the particular quality of Cooper's professional intelligence through physiognomic observation makes the portrait appropriate for both contexts: it works equally as a record of social achievement and as evidence of the focused, courageous intellectual temperament that surgical innovation in the pre-anaesthetic era demanded.

This version shares the alert, intelligent characterization of the Royal Society of Medicine portrait, with Cooper's quick surgeon's eyes and firm expression conveyed through Lawrence's confident brushwork. The warm flesh tones and animated expression distinguish it from a mere replica, though it may involve studio assistance.