Painting of Joseph Bell, 1896

This particular portrait of Joseph Bell was painted in 1896 by George Fiddes Watt. Bell, like many other 19th century surgeons, started his surgical career as a House Surgeon with James Syme and was his special assistant for five years. After demonstrating in Anatomy under John Goodsir he was appointed as an extra-academical Lecturer in Surgery and then in Clinical Surgery before he became the first surgeon to the newly created Department of Surgery in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in 1887. Prior to that time most operations