The Gross Clinic.

Abstract

The Gross Clinic is the best-known painting by Thomas C. Eakins, one of America’s most important artists, who was born in Philadelphia in i 844. Except for a few years of study in Europe, his entire life was spent in his native city. Between i 870 and the early years of the 20th century, Eakins painted many important works covering a wide range of subjects. He was particularly well known for his insightful portraits, which has led art historians to consider him the “American Rembrandt.” In addition, his oeuvre included distinctive depictions of rowing and other sporting scenes and various genre scenes. This great, innovative artist based all his work on an intimate knowledge of anatomy and was one of the first to use photography to study human and animal movement. In 1875, secure in his ability as an artist, Eakins decided to produce a major painting for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibit. Earlier(before and after his European sojourn), Eakins had attended anatomy lectures at Jefferson Medical School. In addition, he had attended the surgical demonstrations of Professor Samuel Gross, who was perhaps the leading sungeon in the country at that time. Gross was a heroic figure, and as the first president of the Jefferson Alumni Association, had asked the alumni in 1871 to help the school obtain portraits of its faculty. Perhaps hoping to stimulate future commissions, Eakins decided to produce a monumental portrait of Jefferson’s most famous alumnus. This huge painting, which demonstrates the removal of a tumor from a patient’s thigh, emphasizes Gross’s dual role as surgeon and educator. The painting is clearly centered on Dr. Gross, who is not only participating in the operation, as seen by the scalpel held in his bloody hands, but also is detached somewhat from the surgery, as a professor or lecturer might be. The light is focused on Dr. Gross’s extnaondinary head, making this one of America’s most important portraits. All the details of the painting are carefully constructed. The assistants are specific, important Philadelphia surgeons, as is the recorder. The students who fill the theater and closely watch and listen to Dr. Gross are portraits of specific people, including an Eakins self-portrait. Only one woman is present, covering her eyes to shut out the proceedings. She is presumably the mother or wife of the patient, as it was customary to have a member of the family present when surgery was carried out on a charity patient. The painting was not accepted for the centennial exhibit, perhaps because of the shock produced by the realistic details of the surgery. However, several years later, the Jefferson Alumni Association did buy the portrait, and Eakins subsequently painted insightful portraits of many faculty members of the three Philadelphia medical schools. Despite its importance, “The Gross Clinic” was not exhibited outside Jefferson Medical School for more than 100 years, until the major Eakins exhibition in 1982 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Eakins was responsible for oil-painting instruction at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for many years. He thus became a major influence in the history of American-painting education. The anatomic knowledge that Eakins taught and the techniques he used with art students had many similarities to anatomic instruction given medical students at the time. He emphasized the importance of anatomic reality, regularly using live models and frequently requiring his students to dissect in order to understand anatomic detail. As noted earlier, he used photography to understand movement and muscular function. His techniques were largely responsible for the important place that the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts held in art instruction during the late 1 9th century. Although not fully appreciated throughout much of his life, Eakins was recognized as one of the major influences in American painting by the time he died in 1916.