Catalogue entry
Thomas Hickey 1741–1824
T01208 Dr John Heath. 1779
Inscribed ‘T. Hickey 1779’ b.l.
Canvas, 29¿ x 24½ (74.5 x 62.5).
Bequeathed by Mrs Helena Beatrice Anderson to the National Gallery 1970; transferred 1970.
Coll: ? commissioned by a member of the Heath family 1779; by descent to Helena Beatrice Anderson.
This portrait was presumably painted in Bath, where Hickey had set up a practice in 1778.
John Heath (1763/4-1823), the son of Thomas Heath of Hanley, Staffordshire, would have been fifteen or sixteen when this portrait was painted. He subsequently became a Doctor of Medicine and practised at Fakenham, Norfolk.
Hickey also painted a portrait of John Heath’s younger brother, the Reverend William Hickey (1766–1830), which is still in the possession of his descendants. (Information provided by Mrs Evelyn Standring, a descendant of the Reverend William Heath).
Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1970–1972, London 1972.