An octave for Mr Ernest Hart at Sir Henry Thompson's house. Oil painting by Solomon Joseph Solomon R.A., ca. 1893.

Octaves were dinner-parties held by Sir Henry Thompson, Bart., Professor of Surgery at University College, London, at his house 35 Wimpole Street, at which eight courses, accompanied by eight wines, were served at eight o'clock to eight guests in addition to the host and the guest of honour. The guest of honour here, seated to the right of the mantelpiece, was Ernest Hart, editor of the British Medical Journal. The room contains works of art from Thompson's collection including paintings by well-known artists of his acquaintance

Clockwise from the centre background (right of mantelpiece): Ernest Abraham Hart, editor of the British Medical Journal 1866-1898, sanitary and medical reformer; Sir Thomas Spencer Wells, 1st baronet (1883), PRCS, gynaecological surgeon; Sir Joseph Fayrer, 1st baronet (1896), FRCP, FRS, FRCS, Surgeon-general, Indian medical service, authority on snake venom; Newman, butler to Sir Henry Thompson Bt.; Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton, 1st baronet (1909), FRCP, FRS, physician and teacher of pharmacology and therapeutics; Sir William Henry Broadbent, 1st baronet (1893), FRCP, FRS, physician; Sir George Anderson Critchett, 1st baronet (1908), FRCS (Edin.), ophthalmic surgeon; Sir Victor Horsley, knight bachelor (1902), FRS, FRCS, surgeon, pathologist and physiologist; Sir Richard Quain, 1st baronet (1891), FRCP, FRS, physician; Sir James Paget, 1st baronet (1871), FRS, PRCS, surgeon and pathologist; Sir Henry Thompson, 1st baronet (1899), FRCS, urological surgeon, supporter of astronomy and cremation of the dead, patron and practitioner of arts and letters, host of the Octaves

[1893?]

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 71.5 x 103.5 cm

Select images of this work were taken by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum: WT/D/1/20/1/65/78

British medical journal, 29 May 1897, p. 1369 ("We may mention that the testimonial in recognition of the work of the founder and President of the Society on his retirement has been expended in the commissioning of Mr Solomon J. Solomon A.R.A. to execute a portrait picture of a dinner at which were present many of the leaders of the profession to welcome Mr Ernest Hart on his return from America. The picture is a great success. Among the portraits in this interesting work are those of the late Sir Spencer Wells, Sir James Paget, Sir Richard Quain, Sir Henry Thompson (the host of the dinner), Sir William Broadbent, Sir Joseph Fayrer, Dr Lauder Brunton, Mr Critchett, Mr Horsley, and the guest of the evening, Mr Ernest Hart. The picture, whether from the point of view of vivid portraiture or of a difficult achievement in the way of artistic ensemble, representing a table decorated with roses and lighted artificially, is a remarkable success, and in many ways interesting. It has much contemporary interest, and wil have hereafter historic value, for groups of portraits of eminent medical men are rare in the history of art.")

D'Arcy Power, article on Ernest Hart in the Dictionary of national biography (with date of exhibition at the Royal Academy as being 1893)

Zachary Cope, The versatile Victorian: being the life of Sir Henry Thompson, Bt. 1820-1904, London 1951, pp. 92-97

Jenny Pery et al., Solomon J Solomon RA, London: Ben Uri Art Gallery, 1990, pp. 6-7

Geoffrey J. Knapman, Care for the caring: Medical Sickness Annuity & Life Assurance Society Limited 1884-1984, London: Henry Melland, 1984

W.D. Dinsmuir and R.S. Kirby, 'Sir Henry Thompson: the first British urologist (1820-1904)', Journal of medical biography, 1995, vol. 3, pp. 187-191

Christopher Wright et al., British and Irish paintings in public collections, New Haven and London: Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2006, p. 737

Keren Rosa Hammerschlag, 'The gentleman artist-surgeon in late Victorian group portraiture', Visual Culture in Britain, 2013;14(2):154-178

Wellcome Collection 45921i

The painting was commissioned as a testimonial by members of the Medical Sickness and Accident Society to its founder and President, Ernest Hart (British medical journal, 29 May 1897, p. 1369). It was purchased by Henry S. Wellcome in November 1909 for £70.