American School, 19th Century Portrait of John Foster Williams Lane as a Boy

Description:

American School, 19th Century

Portrait of John Foster Williams Lane as a Boy
Unsigned.
Oil on canvas mounted on board, sight size 22 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. (57.2 x 41.9 cm),framed.
Condition: Retouch, craquelure, surface grime, backing board lined with muslin.

N.B. The subject of this portrait, John Foster Williams Lane (1817-1861),son of Frederick and Eliza (Bonner) Lane, was born in Boston. He descended from and was named for John Foster Williams (1743-1814),a Boston-born Naval officer in the Revolutionary War. As a youngster, Lane attended the Boston Latin School. In 1831, his parents, having thought him too young to enter college at the age of 13, sent him to Italy and France for further studies. Lane graduated from Harvard University in 1837, where he was elected to the Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, and he earned his medical degree in 1840. He was awarded the Boylston premium in 1841 for his dissertation on the relationship between the chemical properties of blood and disease. He became a noted physician, who published on human anatomy and physiology and also translated medical treatises. (1)

1) Memorials of The Class of 1837 of Harvard University, prepared for the Fiftieth Anniversary of their Graduation by the Class Secretary, Henry Williams, pp. 36-37.

Estimate $2,500-3,500

Sitter was named for a Revolutionary War naval hero (J.F.W.)s a child prodigy. He was regarded as a child prodigy. He graduated from Harvard with an MD in 1840 and he became a famous Boston doctor. He died in Boston in 1861.

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