John King, the Bristol surgeon and friend of artists and poets

The Bristol School of Artists developed between 1800 and 1840 and was a collaboration between professional and amateur artists, one of whom was Dr John King. King started his professional life in Bristol as assistant to Thomas Beddoes where one of his colleagues was Humphry Davy and the three of them worked in the Pneumatic Institute, attempting to cure tuberculosis with gases. King subsequently became a popular general practitioner in Clifton and his correspondence with patrons of art, romantic poets and his friends gives much information about the social life in Bristol in the early part of the 19th century.