A surgical operation to remove a malignant tumour from a man's left breast and armpit in a Dublin drawing room, 1817. Watercolour, 1817.

The original watercolour appears to be a drawing by a student who was present at this operation in 1817 in a Dublin drawing room. The surgeon performing the operation is identified as Rawdon Macnamara, President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1831, who was at the time only two years qualified and probably apprenticed to Sir Philip Crampton depicted in blue coat and hunting boots. The patient died a few days later The name inscribed at the foot seems to be "R. Power". O'Brien interprets this as the name of the patient and gives his forename as Richard. It might however be the name of the artist, in which case he might have been the Robert F. Power who according to Cameron, loc. cit., was appointed in 1836/1837 lecturer in midwifery at the Theatre of anatomy and School of surgery which existed at 27 Peter Street, Dublin, from 1832 to 1841 (mentioned here as a possibility to be investigated)