Francis Gold (1779-1832) Francis Gold was a surgeon and another of the amateur artists of the Bristol circle of friends. He had a younger brother, Henry, who was also an amateur. Their father was a Bristol apothecary (pharmaceutical chemist). Francis Gold was described by Danby as 'a man of great genius'; he seems to have inspired Danby with his animated descriptions of the famous Romantic painting Géricault's 'Raft of the "Medusa"', which he had seen in France in 1820. Francis Gold was an artist of some ambition, painting 'Hagar in the Desert' that same year, but he gave up art after this for a career with the East India Company, dying in India. Rippingille, King and Eagles also admired him, but few of his works survive today.