Dr. Philip Syng Physick
William Rush
American, 1756–1833

Details
Title
Dr. Philip Syng Physick
Artist/Maker
William Rush (American, 1756–1833)
Date
1812–1813
Medium
Painted plaster
Dimensions
26 x 16 x 10 inches
Credit
Gift of the West Foundation in honor of Gudmund Vigtel and Michael E. Shapiro
Accession #
2010.88
An extremely gifted craftsman and self-taught artist, William Rush flourished first as a ship-figurehead carver and then as a sculptor. In this work, he portrayed the prominent Dr. Physick, famous for his good work during Philadelphia’s 1793 yellow-fever epidemic, and then as the first chair of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. His reputation as the father of American surgery parallels Rush’s as the first American-born sculptor. The success of Rush’s work in the round ignited a market for portrait busts that thrived well into the late nineteenth century.
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