Edward Jenner Museum: Talking Pictures: Teacher Notes
Dr Jenner portrait: What can you tell from a painting?
This painting is called a portrait because it focuses on one particular person.
This portrait shows Dr Jenner in his fine clothes in a meadow. Of course
because of Dr Jenner’s important work on smallpox vaccination, a lot of
information about him has been recorded and so we know quite a lot about him.
However this may not have always been the case and one way we could find out
more about him is by looking closely at portraits of him.
Often painters would be commissioned by people to paint their portraits or the
portraits of others. Painters would include details to ensure the person was
described the way they wanted. For example Dr Jenner is shown wearing a fine
coat that shows he was a country gentleman and reasonably wealthy. The
painter has included a ‘setting’ – in this case a meadow with a view of Berkeley
castle and Dr Jenner’s home. These buildings help us as viewers understand
that this place was important to Dr Jenner, he loved Gloucestershire and only
ever wanted to live as a country doctor in Berkeley where he was born.
Similarly by including some Gloucester cows in the painting we are again being
told that Dr Jenner is in Gloucestershire and more importantly connects him to
his famous experiment with a Gloucester cow called Blossom. Blossom provided
the cowpox that gave a dairymaid called Sarah Nelmes a cowpox pustule on her
hand. The pus from Sarah’s pustule was used by Dr Jenner to try out his theory
that people who caught cowpox would not catch smallpox.
So you can see that paintings, particularly portraits, often show us much more
than we first think. A portrait like this appears simply to be of Dr Jenner leaning
against a tree however the artist has added various clues so that in his time and
ours we can find out who this person was, where he lived and how important he
was.
There are two more images in this section to look at.
1. The first is a cartoon called ‘The Cow Pock or the Wonderful Effects of the
New Inoculation’ by James Gilray 1802.
In Dr Jenner’s day people did not have TV or the internet and they relied on
newspapers and posters to gain information on current news topics. Many
people could not read so cartoons were a good way of communicating. This
cartoon is very unusual and quite funny. It shows patients of the London
Smallpox and Isolation Hospital being vaccinated against smallpox. Dr Jenner
created a vaccine against this horrible disease by using a much milder virus
called cowpox to create immunity to smallpox. This was the first vaccine ever to
be used and many, many people were scared of new medicine and in this case
they were also very scared of what would happen if you were given a disease
commonly caught by cows.
In this cartoon James Gilray shows patients turning in to cows or sprouting cowlike parts such as horns and tails. Looking at this cartoon people may think that
the artist was both for and against vaccination. James Gilray could be poking fun
at those who have no idea about medicine suggesting they shouldn’t think that
humans could become cows as this is ridiculous. On the other hand James
Gilray could himself believe the rumours of becoming cow-like from the vaccine.
What do you think?
Questions you might like to use with this image
Who?
Who can you see in this image?
A: A vaccinator or Doctor, vaccinated patients, small cows and parts of cows
What?
What is happening in this image?
A: People are sprouting parts such as horns after being vaccinated for smallpox
by using the cowpox virus
When?
When do you think this image was recorded?
A: This image was recorded by cartoonist James Gilray in 1802
2. A watercolour by Stephen Jenner who was Dr Edward Jenner’s great nephew.
This watercolour has text with it that tells us the painting is of Dr Jenner
vaccinating a child.
We believe this painting could have been completed after Edward Jenner’s death
in 1823 ‘in memory’ of him and his work on smallpox vaccination. We think this
because in the picture we can see a portrait of The Chauntry Cottage (the name
of Dr Jenner’s home and now the home to the Edward Jenner Museum) on the
wall and the date 1823.
This is another case where a picture has given us clues to what the painted is
trying to tell his audience.
Questions you might like to use with this image
Who?
Who can you see in this image?
A: Dr Edward Jenner, a child (possibly James Phipps) a lady (perhaps the child’s
mother) and a cat
What?
What is happening in this image?
A: A child is being vaccinated
When?
When do you think this image was painted?
A: We believe this painting was completed in the 1800’s and it was painted by
Stephen Jenner who was Dr Jenner’s nephew.