The image I chose from the Wellcome Library is called “Mr Gledell, suffering from a rodent disease which has.” This watercolour painting, painted in 1829, is one of the six portraits forming a group of works showing gentlefolk of Leeds with grievous illnesses. The painting shows a young, white man with short black hair dressed in a black coat and stock, possibly in upper class society. He is almost emotionless. It is hard to tell whether he is calm or unhappy. And the grayish white on the background of the painting gives a feeling of sadness. The painting captured my attention because of his red nose. It looks like the red nose that we all get in the cold winter season. However, looking closer to the painting we could find a flat red scaly patch on his right nostril.  Indeed, this young man suffers from a rodent disease which has consumed his left nostril. This young man is facing half left, so we could not see the disfigurement on left side of his nose resulted from the rodent disease. This is similar to the images we saw in class. They all depict some types of diseases, illnesses or cancers. The only difference in the painting is the hidden of the disfigurement because the young man is facing half left and looking away from the painter.

L0037317 Mr Gledell, suffering from a rodent disease which has
Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images
images@wellcome.ac.uk
http://wellcomeimages.org
Mr Gledell, suffering from a rodent disease which has consumed his left nostril. One of six portraits forming a group of works depicting gentlefolk of Leeds with grievous illnesses. A youngish man, facing half left, dressed in a black coat and stock, his left nostril eaten by a cancer and the whole nose a vivid red.
Watercolour
1829 Published: April 1829.
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/