150 years since the birth of Ernest Juvara (1870-1933)

Abstract

Ernest Juvara was born in 1870, in Bârlad, Romania in a wealthy farmer family. He displayed some remarkable aptitudes and skills from early childhood. He finished his primary and high school studies at some of the most famous education institutions in Romania. In 1888 he is accepted at the Paris Medical School. There, Prof. Paul Poirier was an exceptional mentor for Juvara. From him, he learned the art of anatomic drawing. In 1895, Juvara defends his doctoral thesis in medicine and surgery and is awarded “extremement bien” by the Paris Medical School. In the same year he returns to Romania with Prof. Thoma Ionescu and begins his surgical and university career. During his stay in Paris, he managed to publish a successful anatomy book, personally decorated with multiple original anatomical drawings, and drew over 100 anatomy illustrations for demonstrations and anatomy treatise published by his mentor. His extraordinary surgical and scientific activity, organizer and inventor talent advanced him to the position of tenure professor at only 29 years of age. He is regarded as the founder of the Department of clinical surgery at Iași Faculty of Medicine and one of the orthopedics pioneers in Romania. Throughout his career he drew over 3,000 original anatomy illustrations and published over 230 articles and books. We pay tribute to one of the pillars of Romanian medicine, Ernest Juvara, a skillful surgeon, a talented professor, artist, and inventor, and especially a truly remarkable personality.