Percivall Pott (1713–1788)

Percivall Pott, painted around 1773, was one of the most important surgeons of the eighteenth century, whose observations on chimney sweep scrotal cancer (1775) established the first recognized case of occupational carcinogenesis, and whose description of the spinal tuberculosis condition still called Pott's disease made him a founding figure of clinical pathology. Pott worked at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, where his teaching and practice shaped a generation of British surgeons. Dance's portrait of a significant medical figure reflects his access to the professional elite of Georgian London—the lawyers, surgeons, and clerics who formed the educated middle class surrounding the aristocratic patronage network.

Dance presents the surgeon with professional gravity, the intelligent features and steady gaze conveying the clinical acuity that made Pott the leading surgical teacher at St Bartholomew's Hospital for over three decades.