William Hunter (1718–1783) was a Scottish-born anatomist, surgeon and midwife who became, according to his colleague Dr Matthew Baillie, ‘perhaps the best teacher of anatomy that ever lived’. He ran a surgical and midwifery practice in London, investigating the female reproductive system by dissecting animals. He became physician-in-extraordinary to Queen Charlotte in 1762. Hunter built an anatomy school on Great Windmill Street, London, in 1770, which included lecture theatres, dissecting rooms and a museum. Hunter established a superb library and collection of medals and natural history specimens which today forms the collection of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. The portrait was originally attributed to the German Neoclassical painter Johan Zoffany (1733–1810), a founder member of the Royal Academy, but was painted after Allan Ramsay in the late eighteenth century.