Daniel Lambert, weighing almost forty stone. Oil painting.

Date:
[between 1800 and 1899]
Reference:
574786i
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Credit

Daniel Lambert, weighing almost forty stone. Oil painting. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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About this work

Description

The original Dictionary of national biography stated that Daniel Lambert was "the most corpulent man of whom authentic record exists". He was born in the parish of St. Margaret in Leicester on 13 March 1770. After taking over his father's post as Leicester gaoler in 1791, his size and weight started to increase enormously. By 1793 he weighed 32 stone although he was very strong and active, only drank water, and slept for less than eight hours a day. In 1805 he resigned his post at the prison to turn his amazing stature to profit by exhibiting himself all over England. He died in Stamford at the Waggon and Horses inn on 21 July 1809 weighing 739 lbs. See further L. Fiedler, 'Freaks', New York 1978, pp. 128-129

Publication/Creation

[between 1800 and 1899]

Physical description

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 71 x 60 cm

Creator/production credits

Not the same composition as the portrait of Lambert by Ben Marshall exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1807 and later in Leicester Museum and Art Gallery. It is however similar to the composition of an engraved portrait of Lambert "published for the Proprietors by Bell & De Camo, 1 August 1809"

Reference

Wellcome Collection 574786i

Exhibitions note

Exhibited in “Medicine Man” at Wellcome Collection, February 2015 – February 2019
Exhibited in “A-Z of the Human Condition” at Wellcome Collection, 24 June - 12 October 2014

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