Surgeon Samuel de Pozzi in the 1881 portrait by John Singer Sargent
The French surgeon Samuel-Jean de Pozzi (1846-1918) is sometimes called one of the handsomest men of his day. In his university years he even earned the nickname Siren. Pozzi's life was a most entertaining one, and it is no accident that Julian Barnes devoted his latest novel to this man in the red dressing gown. This portrait of Samuel de Pozzi in his Paris apartment was painted by John Singer Sargent in 1881.
