Human navel
Date
1839
Creator
James Alderson (1794 - 1882, British) , Physician
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 174mm
width (painting): 147mm
width (painting): 147mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Study of a human navel intended to show variations in skin pigmentation. The anonymous subject of the painting was, according to the author, “the umbilicus of a Girl of Colour 3 years of age – the cicatrix is nearly without colour”. Alderson was a physician in Kingston upon Hull, England and therefore this child was probably a resident of the city.
Unpublished illustration intended as plate 1 for the paper “On the difference of colour in different parts of the bodies of animals” by James Alderson. A brief abstract of this paper (composed by Peter Mark Roget) was published in Abstracts of the papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions... [eg Proceedings of the Royal Society] v.4 1837-1843 pp.165-166.
Not signed. Inscribed in ink top right: “No.1”. Below, “Umbilicus of a Girl of Color (Dr Alderson’s Paper)” and “Roy. Soc. Proc. vol.4 p.165.”
Sir James Alderson (1794-1882) was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1841.
Unpublished illustration intended as plate 1 for the paper “On the difference of colour in different parts of the bodies of animals” by James Alderson. A brief abstract of this paper (composed by Peter Mark Roget) was published in Abstracts of the papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions... [eg Proceedings of the Royal Society] v.4 1837-1843 pp.165-166.
Not signed. Inscribed in ink top right: “No.1”. Below, “Umbilicus of a Girl of Color (Dr Alderson’s Paper)” and “Roy. Soc. Proc. vol.4 p.165.”
Sir James Alderson (1794-1882) was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1841.
Associated place