Baldwin Hamey (1600 - 76)
The Marble Bust
by Edward Pearce (1635 - 1692).
at the Royal College of Physicians.
Baldwin Hamey the younger.
Baldwin Hamey (Boudouin ) 1568 - 1640) senior was born at Bruges, and studied at the University of Leyden, where he graduated M.D. in 1592. He was nominated by Johannes Heurnius for a post under Feodor II of Russia, who had asked the Rector of Leiden for a physician. He held the position from 1594 to 1597, when he resigned.
In 1598 he was married in Amsterdam to Sarah Oeils.
Balwin Hamey the Elder
(de Hame)
Anonymous
dated 1633
oil on canvas
65.8 x 51.1 cms
Gift from an anonymous donor 1967
Royal College of Physicians
Image courtesy Art UK.
Baldwin Hamey the younger.
Baldwin Hamey (Boudouin ) 1568 - 1640) senior was born at Bruges, and studied at the University of Leyden, where he graduated M.D. in 1592. He was nominated by Johannes Heurnius for a post under Feodor II of Russia, who had asked the Rector of Leiden for a physician. He held the position from 1594 to 1597, when he resigned.
In 1598 he was married in Amsterdam to Sarah Oeils.
Balwin Hamey the Elder
(de Hame)
Anonymous
dated 1633
oil on canvas
65.8 x 51.1 cms
Gift from an anonymous donor 1967
Royal College of Physicians
Image courtesy Art UK.
In 1598 Hamey returned to Holland, and later in the same year
settled in London. For twelve years he had a marginal and unlicensed practice, largely
among Dutch immigrants.
He had two sons
He was admitted a licentiate of the
College of Physicians on 12 January 1610. He then practised with success till
his death, of a pestilential fever, 10 November 1640.
He was buried on the
north side of the church of All Hallows Barking, and his three children erected
a monument in the church to his memory. He left £20 to the College of
Physicians.
http://www.manfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2015-May-Palmer-Family-of-Roydon-and-Chelsea-Part-TwoA.pdf
http://www.manfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2015-May-Palmer-Family-of-Roydon-and-Chelsea-Part-TwoA.pdf
Monument of Baldwin Hamey Senior
All Hallows Tower Hill, London.
____________________________
Baldwin Hamey was born in London on 24 April 1600, the
eldest son of Baldwin Hamey, the Flemish physician. He received his early
education at one of the public city schools. He entered the University of
Leyden as a student of philosophy in May 1617, and then went to Oxford in 1621
and studied humanities in the public library. In the winter of 1622-23 he was
apprenticed to his father in London, whereupon his real medical education
began. Hamey returned to Holland in the summer of 1625 and graduated MD at
Leyden on 12 August 1626. His thesis, De Angina, was to be his only published
work.
He returned to London and continued his apprenticeship,
gaining some necessary clinical experience. He then travelled in Europe,
visiting the universities of Paris, Montpelier, and Padua, before returning to
Southwark to marry Anna de Pettin of Rotterdam in May 1627. Later that year
they moved from his parents' house in Sydon Lane, to a house in St Clement's
Lane, and Hamey began to practice under the patronage of Simeon Foxe, physician
and President of the Royal College of Physicians. At this time he enjoyed many
hours of leisure. He began to record the biographies of his friends and contemporaries.
Hamey was incorporated MD at Oxford, 4 February 1629/30, and then admitted a
Candidate of the Royal College of Physicians of London in June 1630. He became
a Fellow of the College in January 1633/4.
He was generous with his wealth throughout his life, and was
`a liberal benefactor to many poor but deserving scholars' (Munk's Roll, 1878,
p.211). In 1634 he financed the education of one such man, John Sigismund
Clewer. Hamey performed many unpaid roles within the Royal College of
Physicians, and was unfailing in his attendance at College events. He was a
censor on several occasions between 1640 and 1654, and registrar in 1646, and
1650-54. In 1647 he delivered the anatomical Goulstonian Lectures at the
College.
During the Interregnum, 1649-60, Hamey, a royalist and
faithful member of the Church of England, considered leaving London, but an
attack of inflammation of the lungs prevented him. Whilst convalescing he
agreed to consult a puritan soldier who, much satisfied with the service,
handed Hamey a bag of gold as payment. Hamey politely refused the generous
gesture, whereupon the soldier took a handful of gold coins from the bag and
placed them in the physician's pocket. On Hamey's producing the coins to his
surprised wife he learnt that during his illness, to avoid troubling him, she
had paid that exact sum, 36 pieces of gold, to a state exaction executed by
another puritan soldier. Hamey perceived the providential incident as an omen
against his leaving the capital. So he remained in London, where his burgeoning
practice grew to include a number of parliamentarians.
Hamey became wealthy and his generosity continued unabated.
In 1651 the Royal College of Physicians' building at Amen Corner, which stood
in grounds belonging to St Paul's cathedral, was in a vulnerable position.
Hamey, `with a generosity which does him immortal honour', bought the property
and made it over in perpetuity to the College (ibid, p.212). Remaining a
faithful royalist despite his apparent neutrality, Hamey also purchased a diamond
ring of Charles I bearing the royal arms, for £500, which he presented to
Charles II at the Restoration in 1660. During the Interregnum Hamey had sent
Charles II a number of gifts. In recognition of his services the king offered
him a knighthood and the position of physician in ordinary to himself, honours
which an ageing Hamey respectfully declined.
Hamey was treasurer at the Royal College of Physicians in
1664-66. He retired from his practice in 1665, the year before the Great Fire
of London, after having remained in London to fight the Plague. He went to live
in Chelsea. After the fire he donated a large sum of money to the rebuilding of
the College, and wainscoted the dining room with carved Spanish oak (which is
still preserved in the Censor's Room of the present building). In 1672 he gave
the College an estate near Great Ongar in Essex. The rents arising from the
lands were to pay annual sums to the physicians of St Bartholomew's Hospital,
provided that the hospital accepted the nominees of the College. He also
donated £100 towards the repair of St Paul's Cathedral, and contributed to the
upkeep of All Hallows, Barking, where his parents were buried, of his own
parish church, St Clement's, Eastcheap, and to the restoration of St Luke's,
Chelsea.
Hamey died in Chelsea on 14 May 1676, aged 76. He was buried
in the parish church with a simple black marble slab. A gilt inscription, with
his arms, was laid years later. Hamey and his wife, who had died in 1660, had
had no children. A major benefactor of his inheritance was the Royal College of
Physicians, to whom he confirmed forever the bequest of his estate in Essex.
His friend, Adam Littleton, lexicographer, printed his essay On the Oath of
Hippocrates (1688).
https://aim25.com/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=7132&inst_id=8
________________________________
Photographs here taken by the author.
......................................
Image above courtesy Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive.
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The Portraits of Baldwin Hamey
Hamey’s portrait, by Cornelius Johnson, was extant in 1733,
and then in the possession of Ralph Palmer (II) but subsequently lost. The sitter in Johnson’s ‘Portrait of a Physician in
his Medical Library’ has never been identified but some scholars have claimed that it could be of Hamey.
A Physician
Cornelius Johnson (Janssens)
Royal College of Physicians.
Image courtesy Art UK
It has been suggested that this is a portrait of Baldwin Hamey
The portrait is by the Flemish-born artist Cornelis Janssens
(or Johnson), the finest portrait painter working in England in the early
seventeenth century, and the best portrait painter of his generation before van
Dyck.
The portrait is viewed as a significant work by the artist. The sitter is
a physician of high standing as the depiction of his library indicates, with
works by Hippocrates, Vesalius, Galen and Paracelsus with the New Testament in
Greek open at a passage from the Book of Revelation.
The identity of the sitter
has been narrowed to three candidates, all of which have strong connections
with the Royal College of Physicians: Dr John Bathurst (1600–1675), Dr Lewin
Fludd (1612–1678), or Jean Colladon (1608–1675).
_________________________
Decription of this portrait from The Art Fund Website
see - https://www.artfund.org/news/2008/11/21/grant-success-brings-17th-century-portrait-to-royal-college-of-physicians
The sitter is clearly a physician of high standing as the
inclusion of books by Hippocrates, Vesalius, Galen and Paracelsus indicates,
with the New Testament in Greek open at a passage from the Book of Revelations.
William Schupbach, Curator of the Wellcome Collection, said
of the portrait: ‘One could reasonably say that it is the finest and most
programmatic picture of a seventeenth-century academic physician, proudly
displaying his “knowledge-base”.’
Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of
Physicians said: “This is a magnificent addition to our collection and we are
very grateful to those organisations and individuals who made this possible.”
David Barrie, Director of The Art Fund, said: “The Art Fund
is delighted to help the Royal College of Physicians acquire this intriguing
painting which will now go on public display for the first time in almost 400
years. Johnson’s portrait of a learned physician illustrates the history of the
profession, and we hope to learn even more when the College solves the mystery
of the sitter's identity. Whoever he was, he should feel at home in the
College’s collection of medical portraits!”
The identity of the young sitter has been narrowed to two
candidates, Dr John Bathurst (c. 1600-1675), who has strong connections with
the College, or Dr Lewin Fludd (1612-1678).*
Now that it is in the collection, the College will be
carrying out further research on the portrait to confirm the identity of the
sitter now that it is in its collection.
Dr Bathurst is the sitter identified by both Dr Karen Hearn
(Curator of 16th and 17th century art at Tate Britain) and William Schupbach
(Painting Librarian at the Wellcome Collection). Bathurst obtained his degree
of Doctor of Medicine and was admitted to the College as a Fellow in 1637 (the
date of the portrait), while the Bathurst family came from Goudhurst in Kent,
and Johnson painted a number of portraits in the 1630s of the Campion family,
fellow Goudhurst residents.
Dr Bathurst had a distinguished career in the College as a
Censor, and in 1657 was elevated to the office of Elect. Bathurst was best
known as Oliver Cromwell’s physician, and was a friend of William Harvey.
William Birken (expert on 17th Century physicians) has
suggested Dr. Lewin Fludd, who was the nephew of the eminent Dr. Robert Fludd,
a Fellow and Censor of the College. Robert Fludd was a philosopher and a
supporter of the use of Paracelsian medicine. In 1637 he left his library of
books to his nephew. In portraying himself with his uncle’s library, Lewin would
be displaying the knowledge on which Robert Fludd’s learning was based,
embracing the unconventional as well as the conventional doctrines.
Other contemporary sitters of the right age have been
‘tentatively’ ruled out for a variety of reasons. Sir George Ent due to the
lack of physical resemblance compared to his known portrait; Sir Thomas Sheafe
due to locality; and Dr. Baldwin Hamey Jr. due to his great regard for Galen,
and his dislike of the ‘vanities’ of Paracelsus, which are at odds with the
painting.
________________________________
Baldwin Hamey
with busts of Aristophanes and Hippocrates
Matthew Snelling (1621 - 78
Oil on Canvas
124.8 x 99.6 cms
1674.
Royal College of Physicians.
Image from Art UK.
___________________________
For my first post on Pierce see
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/08/edward-pierce-pearce-1635-1692.html
___________________________
Edward Pearce (1635 - 92).
Isaac Fuller (1606 - 72).
1245 x 1016 mm
Yale Centre for British Art
For Edward Pearce see -
http://217.204.55.158/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=2075
I hope in the future to put a much more detailed piece together on the life and works of the sculptor and polymath Edward Pearce.
________________________________
The following notes on the portraits of Baldwin Hamey are
taken mostly from The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Volume 1.
In the College of Physicians are two portraits of Hamey: one
at the age of thirty-eight by Sir Anthony van Dyck and the
other by Matthew Snelling. The former portrait is mentioned in one of Ralph Palmer's letters (Ingilby MSS.), dated 12th May 1732.
A bust was executed at the expense of the College and placed
there in 1684.
Unfortunately, from the middle of the eighteenth century and into the 21st century the van Dyck portrait ‘disappeared’
from the College of Physicians. However, before doing so a copy
of it had been made by Jonathan Richardson at Palmer’s behest and presented by him to his friend Edward Butler president of Magdalen College, Oxford, (…to be placed among the other
worthies of the
University.)
Baldwin Hamey the Younger
Anthony van Dyck
about 1638
Royal College of Physicians
Image courtesy Art UK
__________________________________________
Baldwin Hamey
The Bodleian Copy by Richardson?
Gift from Ralph Palmer in 1732
Oil on canvas.
63 x 49.5 cms
Bodleian Library
Image from Art UK
____________________________
The Royal College of Physicians -
Showing the bust of Baldwin Hamey over the door.
by Augustus Charles Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson.
From The Microcosm of London published in 1809.
This image was lifted from the website Spitalfields Life.
Spitalfield's Life is a wonderful Daily Diary (blog) and I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone with an interest in the London of the past or the present.
Note -The Censors Room's in the Royal College of Physicians has oak fluted pilaster panelling which was probably designed by architect Robert Hooke and built by London wood carver Thomas Young in 1675. The wealthy physician and censor Dr Baldwin Hamey (1600-1676) purchased the panelling to line the dining room of Hooke's new purpose-built College in Warwick Lane. Hamey's eulogy in the RCP annals notes: ‘He completed at his own expense the whole seelinge work of our dining room, so ornately, so elaborately constructed’. The word 'seelinge' (ceiling) was then used to refer to any cladding of a wall for draught proofing.
___________________________________
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19th Century photograph of the Panelled Censors Room
in the Building on Pall Mall.
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For the other three portrait busts in the Censors Room at the Royal College of Physicians.
Richard Meade by Roubiliac
see my blog posts - http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2016/09/bust-of-richard-meade-by-roubiliac.html
William Harvey by Scheemakers
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/10/bust-of-william-harvey-scheemakers.html
Sydenham by Wilton
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-marble-bust-of-thomas-sydenham-md-by.html
_____________________________
19th century photograph of the bust of Harvey at the Royal College of Surgeons
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