Summary: Dr William Hunter, a leading anatomist in eighteenth-century Britain is recognized as an exemplary practitioner in medical history. However, his connections to a much wider world of cultural interests, in collecting and the fine arts, natural philosophy and antiquarianism, has only recently received attention. In a departure from conventional biographies, this book concentrates on Hunter’s position at the very centre of artistic, scientific and cultural life in London and in doing so, presents a sustained and critical account of the relationship between anatomy and artists over the course of the long eighteenth century. In 1768 Hunter was appointed first Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy of Arts, an acknowledgement of his already well-established teaching of anatomy to artists at the St. Martin’s Lane Academy in the 1750s. Hunter’s Royal Academy lectures are analyzed here together for the first time with his lectures to students of anatomy more generally, and include published texts, original manuscripts and personal correspondence. This study explains how the anatomist also belonged to the fine arts in an exploration of Hunter’s relationships to some of the most important artists in Britain in the eighteenth century, including Johan Zoffany, George Stubbs, William Hogarth, and Jan Van Rymsdyk.

Contents: Art, Science, Curiosity and Commerce ; Forming the Museum: Context and Chronology ; The Great Windmill Street Anatomy School and Museum ; Patronage and Patriots: Hunter and a National School of Artists ; Collecting Ambitions (1770-1783) The Grand Tour Paintings ; Pursuing the Imitation of Nature in and beyond the Royal Academy of Arts.

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