An aged anatomist selecting his dissection instrument while a young woman tries to warn that his subject is alive. Coloured etching by T. Rowlandson, 1811.

A poster on the wall reads: "A course of anatomical lectures accompanied with dissections will be delivered tomorrow even[ing] by Professor Sawbone". A bust of a man stares down disapprovingly

Vincent identifies the scene as being inspired by a scene in the play The anatomist; or, the sham-doctor, by Edward Ravenscroft (1654?-1707), which was performed at the Drury Lane Theatre on 19 December 1801 and elsewhen. Ravenscroft's play was in turn an adaptation of Crispin médecin by Noël Le Breton, Sieur de Hauteroche (1617-1707). The bust may be of Shakespeare (suitable for a scene in a play) or of William Harvey, the anatomist; Black, loc. cit., notes a resemblance of the bust to William Hunter

[London] (111 Cheapside) : Thos. Tegg, 12 March 1811.

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; platemark 35.5 x 24.8 cm.

Select images of this work were taken by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum: WT/D/1/20/1/77/91

The anatomist. Rowlandson del.

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. IX, London 1949, no. 11800

L.M. Vincent, 'The anatomist by Thomas Rowlandson (1726-1827): the play's the thing', Medical history, 2005, 49: 213-218

Peter Black (ed.), "My highest pleasures": William Hunter's art collection, London 2007, p. 156

Wellcome Collection 11062i