Sir Thomas Richard Fraser (1919)
1
Photograph © The University of Edinburgh
Artist | Robert Home (b.1865, d.1936) |
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Title | Sir Thomas Richard Fraser |
Date | 1919 |
Period | 20th century; 1910s |
Description | Three-quarter length. The Professor wears a gown and is seated with his hands on his knees. In his left hand he holds a velvet bonnet. Signed and dated in the left-hand corner. The painter is probably identified with the 'R.H.' who signed EU0448. Fraser was born in India and educated at public schools in Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated M.D. in 1862. Continuing his research under Sir Robert Christison, he was appointed Physician in the Royal Infirmary in 1869 and in 1877 he succeeded to the Chair of Materia Medica, which he held for forty years. He was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1877 and knighted in 1902. Thomas Fraser's first investigations were into the action of arrow and ordeal poisons, a line fo research that developed from the brilliant work he did on the Calabar Bean for his M.D. thesis. A line of investigation developing out of this research dealt witht he subject of antagonism between different active substances, which in turn led to important researches on snake venoms and anti-venin. During his forty years' tenure of the Chair, Sir Thomas, in addition to his lecturing and research work, acted as a Physician in the Royal Infirmary, as his predecessors had done, but his important investigations had so stimulated research within the department that it was decided, on his retirement, to conduct materia medica as a laboratory subject and to delegate the subject of therapeutics to a separate professor who would be responsible for clinical teaching- hence the foundation of the Christison Chair of Therapeutics in 1919. Even with his onerous clinical and teaching duties, Sir Thomas found time to devote to administration, serving as Dean of his Faculty for nineteen years and as an assessor on the University Court for ten years. In recognition of his notable service to his alma mater, the University added to the list of his honorary degrees- an SC.D. from Cambrdige, an M.D. from Dublin, LL.DS. from Glasgow and Aberdeen- by conferring on him in 1919 her Doctorate of Laws. |
Material | canvas (textile material)/textile materials/materials (substances); oil paint (paint)/paint (coating) |
Dimensions | 114.3 x 86.34 cm |
Collection | Art Collection |
Classification | oil paintings (visual works); portrait |
Signature | Signed and dated 'R.H. 1919' in the left-hand corner. The painter is probably to be identified with the 'R.H.' (his signature in another portrait) |
Accession Number | EU0293 |
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