15 little-known facts about the Gross Clinic, which shocked society by the realist Thomas Eakins

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

American realist painter Thomas Eakins became famous for his portraits, which are painted in such detail that they are sometimes mistaken for photographs. But his most striking work was the painting "Clinic Gross", painted in 1875 and made a lot of noise.

1. Eakins loved his city

Eakins prided himself on being a Philadelphia resident and often drew inspiration from ordinary urban situations. Eakins created the Gross Clinic in honor of local surgeon Samuel Gross.

2. Operations at the department

Gross's clinic was located at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, from which Gross graduated in 1828 and then returned as a professor in 1856. During his internship at Jefferson College, Gross became the 20th President of the American Medical Association, after which he founded the American Surgical Association and the Society of Pathologists of Philadelphia.

3. Eakins was inspired by Rembrandt

The painting by the famous Dutch artist Rembrandt "Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulpa", which depicted an autopsy and a lecture on anatomy, prompted the portraitist Eakins to draw in great detail surgeons, students, spectators and Gross himself.

4. Frightening realism

Eakins is different from all the painters who have painted surgical operations. Rembrandt and other artists have previously depicted doctors working on corpses. Few dared to depict surgery on a living patient like Eakins.

5. Greetings from the master

If you look closely at the right side of the picture, you can see a man in a dark robe, who, carefully observing the operation, is scribbling something in a notebook. This is Eakins himself.

6. One of the largest paintings by Eakins

The Gross Clinic is one of Eakins' most ambitious paintings.

7. Barbaric restorers

During the first restoration of the painting, it was almost destroyed. In 1929, the artist's widow, Susan Eakins, voiced her anger over the original restoration of the painting, claiming that the varnishing had been done improperly. But things got even worse in 1940 when restorer Hannah M. Horner pasted the canvas onto a plywood backing.

Due to the size of the canvas, Horner used two separate pieces of plywood. Over the years, the bending and warping of these two separate pieces of plywood nearly split the painting in two. Fortunately, Horner's monstrous oversight was later corrected and the varnish removed.

8. Eakins' inspiration

The painting was the result of Eakins' inspiration. Since the artist did not need to satisfy the needs of the client, he freely experimented with a form of "scientific realism".

9. Great hopes

Despite the fact that the painting did not have a specific buyer, Eakins completely immersed himself in the work and very much hoped that his painting would be appreciated. He spent a whole year on the Gross Clinic, also having previously made six small portraits of Dr. Gross and an oil sketch of the final scene. Eakins hoped to exhibit his painting at the 1876 art exhibition.

10. Painting among medical furniture

The selection committee for the art exhibition was shocked by the depiction of the surgical procedure. Therefore, instead of placing the canvas in an art gallery, it was exhibited in the section dedicated to the image of medical furniture.

11. The tremendous success of the "Chess Players"

At the same time, another picture of Eakins - "The Chess Players" - enjoyed tremendous success. The oil painting, which depicts three men contemplating a chessboard against the backdrop of a chic setting, was very well received at the same exhibition in 1876. Today this painting is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

12. "Clinic Gross": no one is indifferent

Few paintings have received such controversial reviews. The New York Tribune wrote about the canvas: "This is one of the most powerful, terrifying, but breathtaking paintings that have been written in this century … it just is not for the faint of heart." At the same time, the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph said: "It is very good that the disgust of the selection committee led to the fact that this canvas did not make it to the main exhibition."

13. One more operation

In 1889, Topas Eakins painted The Clinic of Dr. Agnew, which depicted surgeon David Agnew performing a partial mastectomy in a medical amphitheater. The painting was refused admission to an exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1891, and an exhibition by the Society of American Artists of New York in 1892.

As a result, the painting was shown at the 1893 World's Fair, where it was criticized for its detailed depiction of surgery and its depiction of female nudity.

14. Jefferson College bought out Gross Clinic

The Gross Clinic was soon acquired by graduates of Jefferson Medical College for $ 200, after which they donated the canvas to the college. For more than 131 years, the painting was in the collection of the college, and in 2006 it was sold for $ 68 million to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in joint ownership.

15. Wave of indignation

Initially, Thomas Jefferson University, where Jefferson College of Medicine is located, planned to sell the canvas to institutions outside the artist's hometown, such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington or the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Outrage from the local art community led to a fundraiser in Philadelphia to preserve the painting in Eakins' hometown.

Connoisseurs of contemporary art will certainly appreciate and diptych paintings that can be viewed endlessly.