William Hunter (1718–1783)

Ramsay's portrait of William Hunter (1718-1783), the pioneering Scottish anatomist and obstetrician who founded the Hunterian Museum and the Hunterian Collection, now at the Royal College of Physicians, documents a professional and personal friendship between two of the most distinguished Scots of their generation. Hunter and Ramsay both spent formative years in London and both contributed to the remarkable Scottish Enlightenment achievement in medicine and the arts. Hunter's anatomical work — his great atlas Anatomia Uteri Humani Gravidi of 1774 — established new standards of scientific illustration, and his appreciation for art as a tool of scientific knowledge made him a natural friend for Ramsay. The Royal College of Physicians of London holds Hunter's portrait as part of its collection of distinguished medical men, placing it in the institutional context that Hunter's own professional life inhabited.

A portrait of a physician-scientist presented to a professional institution required a balance between the informal psychological directness Ramsay excelled at and the professional dignity the College expected. The absence of medical instruments or anatomical books as props is typical of Ramsay's mature style, which trusted the face to carry the characterisation rather than leaning on professional attributes as supplements.