L'home de la bata vermella

In 1885, three Frenchmen came to London to "make intellectual and decorative acquisitions". They were a prince, an earl, and a commoner. The latter, of provincial origin and Italian surname, was called Samuel Jean Pozzi. He was a dandy, a seducer who had countless lovers, a cultured and liberal man who translated Darwin into French, a pioneer of gynecology and also a surgeon. His graceful figure was immortalized by the great painter John Singer Sargent in a famous portrait in which he poses in a red robe.