Skip to main content

Secondary sourcePainting1857

The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the Wounded at Scutari

Jerry Barrett · 1857

An 1857 painting by Jerry Barrett showing Florence Nightingale at the hospital in Scutari, helping create her public image as the 'Lady with the Lamp'.

This painting depicts Nightingale at Scutari and helped build her public image as a heroic nursing figure.

Ask Florence Nightingale about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Painting of a hospital hall at Scutari with a tall arched doorway opening onto a city view. A woman in a grey dress stands center-left among soldiers, Turkish-dressed figures, and officers. A wounded soldier lies on a stretcher while a kneeling man tends him. A soldier in red points toward the doorway.
Jerry Barrett, The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the Wounded at Scutari, 1857. National Portrait Gallery, London.

About this source

What it is

A history painting made in 1857 by the Irish artist Jerry Barrett, based on sketches done at Scutari near Constantinople, where Nightingale and others ran a hospital for wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War. It now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Why it matters

The painting shows Nightingale among wounded soldiers, officers and local figures in the hospital hall, helping to cement her reputation as the 'Lady with the Lamp'. Painted soon after the events it depicts, it reveals how quickly her wartime work was turned into a heroic public image, shaped as much by artists and the press as by her own actions.

Look closer

  • Where is Nightingale placed in the composition, and what does that suggest about how the artist wanted viewers to see her?
  • What is shown of the wounded soldiers, and what might be left out?
  • Why might a painting like this have been popular with the British public at the time?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Florence Nightingale on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Florence Nightingale sources

Meet the AI Florence Nightingale →
Polar area diagram titled 'Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East' with two rose charts of blue, red, and black wedges for April 1854 to March 1856, with explanatory notes below.Document

Primary source

Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East

Florence Nightingale · 1858

Pen and ink sketch of a large multi-gabled Tudor-style country house with tall chimneys, surrounded by trees and shrubs. Handwritten caption at bottom reads 'Embley, Hampshire' and 'Sketched by Florence Nightingale'.Painting

Primary source

Embley Park, Hampshire

Florence Nightingale · 1854

Artifact

Primary source

Recording of the voice of Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale · 1890

Pen-and-ink sketch of a hospital ward. A woman in a long dark dress stands at right beside a wounded man seated on a bed. Other patients lie in beds along the left, and more beds are visible through a doorway at right. Handwritten numbers appear at upper left.Painting

Primary source

Lithograph of Florence Nightingale, 1854

1854

Sepia-toned photograph of a seated woman in a dark dress with a light-colored collar and a white lace cap, looking down toward her hands resting on a book or paper on her lap. She sits in an ornate carved wooden chair against a plain backdrop.Photograph

Primary source

Florence Nightingale by Kilburn c1854

Kilburn · c. 1854

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Florence Nightingale now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions