Thomas Lovell Buzzard MD FRCP was a Victorian English doctor who worked at the National Hospital, Queen Square. He was a pioneering neurologist who founded an epilepsy society and wrote also on Parkinson's disease. One of the last doctors to be trained through the apprenticeship route, Buzzard witnessed the Crimean War and later was a role model for the famous painting The Doctor.
Thomas Buzzard's carte-de-visite by Wilson & Beadell, New Bond Street, photographers to Queen Victoria.
The Doctor, Luke Fildes, 1891. Oil-on-canvas, Tate Gallery, London.
The Doctor is an 1891 painting by Luke Fildes that depicts a Victorian doctor observing the critical stage in a child's illness while the parents gaze on helplessly from the periphery. It has been used to portray the values of the ideal physician and the inadequacies of the medical profession. Different theories exist as to the painting's origin but it is most likely based upon Fildes' own experience of the death of his son. Critics have noted that Fildes omitted common medical equipment of his era in order to focus on the relationship between physician and patient.
The Doctor (painting)
Self-portrait, Luke Fildes, 1911. Royal Academy of Arts, London.
The Widower, Luke Fildes, 1876. A precursor of The Doctor.
Detail of the doctor and patient