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Dr. William Hunter, a pioneering physician and teacher, was born in East Kilbride, south of Glasgow, in 1718. Originally destined for a career in the church, he became a successful and popular doctor with a speciality in obstetrics. In 1762, having moved to London after studying abroad, he became the physician to Queen Charlotte, consort of George III, and he subsequently supervised the delivery of her fifteen children. In addition, he taught anatomy and surgery at a school he established in central London.

Hunter was also an insatiable and eclectic collector whose wide range of interests included ancient civilizations, art, foreign cultures, and the natural sciences. Among his many friends he counted the artist Allan Ramsay, who painted his portrait (illustrated here), and Captain James Cook, whose artifacts he eventually acquired sometime after the explorer's voyage to the South Pacific.

Hunter determined that his home city should benefit from his fortune. He wrote to a friend in 1765, "I have a great inclination to do something considerable at Glasgow." This turned out to be typical British understatement, for on his death he left his entire collection to the University of Glasgow, along with the funds to create a suitable museum. Opened in 1807, the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery celebrates its bicentenary this year. After being closed for two years for refurbishment, it has recently reopened with two exhibitions to mark the anniversary and a new permanent display called Hunter: Man, Medic and Collector.

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One of the exhibitions, entitled "My Highest Pleasures": William Hunter's Art Collection, which opens on June 15, highlights his paintings and shows that he collected Italian, Dutch, Flemish, and French art with equal passion. It includes some 150 works and is on view until December 1. The curator, Peter Black, is the museum's curator of prints and Italian, Dutch, and German old masters. The accompanying catalogue, distributed in North America by the University of Washington Press, contains essays by Black, as well as by Mungo Campbell, Anne Dulau, and Helen McCormack.

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The other exhibition, Highlights from the Hunterian Scottish Collection, focuses on the museum's holdings of Scottish art and includes the work of such artists as Ramsay, David Wilkie, the Glasgow Boys, the Scottish Colourists, and Eduardo Paolozzi. It was organized by Anne Dulau, the museum's curator of old masters, English, French, and Scottish art. The show opened in May and can be seen until the end of December. There is no catalogue.

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