Pelham Warren (1777–1835) ran one of the largest independent physician practices in London in the early nineteenth century. Although a very competent physician, he was described rather colourfully in the December 1835 edition of the London Medical Gazette: ‘His manners were peculiar and not always pleasing, being generally cold and sometimes abrupt. He took a prodigious quantity of snuff, and was plain and untidy in his dress.’

Warren was the ninth son of Richard Warren, physician to George III. He was known as an accurate observer of disease and an accomplished classical scholar. The portrait was painted by the English landscape painter John Linnell in 1836. It is one of at least three versions which still exist. The painting was arranged by Warren’s sister-in-law, Lady Callcott, and the sittings took place just before Warren’s final illness in 1835.