Description
Seated three-quarter length by a desk. Oil on canvas.
The physician John Balmanno was Visiting Physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Glasgow Royal Asylum, and served two terms as President of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons between 1802 and 1814.
He studied medicine in Edinburgh, graduating in 1798, and was admitted to the College in 1801. He took up his position at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1804, then going on to taking up the role of Visiting Physicians to the Glasgow Royal Asylum in 1821- this post was previously held by Robert Cleghorn.
Balmanno’s mother was a well-known apothecary in the Trongate in Glasgow.