Comparing Dutch Surgeon And Dr. Samuel D. The Gross Clinic

Improved Essays
In this essay I will compare two portrait paintings of Nicolaes Tulp who was a Dutch Surgeon and Dr. Samuel D. Gross who was an Academic Surgeon and a professor at a medical school. The first painting is “The Anatomy Lesson,” which was painted in 1632 by Rembrandt. The second painting is “The Gross Clinic which was painted in 1875 by Thomas C. Eakins. Both paintings are oil on canvas that depicts the doctor’s experiences with teaching the anatomy of the human body to other surgeons in training. In “The Anatomy Lesson” it shows Doctor Nicolaes Tulp dissecting the forearm of the corpse in order to demonstrate the workings of the muscle structure (“The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholas Tulp1”). Where as in “The Gross Clinic” Dr. Samuel D. Gross …show more content…
They all seem very intrigued by the teachings of the professor but some of them seem in awe whereas others seemed shocked. In “The Gross Clinic” the background faces are very hard to see, the woman is covering her face, and the men helping the doctor are focused on the incision and you can mainly only see their profile. Doctor Samuel D. Gross is the only face that you can see, his face is painted very pale and washed out but you can tell he has a stern look on his face. His stern face can be depicted as very focused or even angry. Another similarity that wasn’t very noticeable at the beginning is in both pictures one of the men are holding a sheet of paper with writing on it. In “The Anatomy Lesson” the guy holding the sheet is starring out towards the viewer in a gaze and in “The Gross Clinic” the man is looking down at the paper almost as if he is double checking the steps of the new surgery invention or looking at the patients information. One source that wrote about “The Anatomy Lesson” suggest that this sheet with a list of names enhances the dramatic concentration on Tulp’s demonstration (“The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp”1). Which would make sense because this painting was during the Baroque Movement, which was where they exaggerated …show more content…
Nicolaes Tulp”1). This coincides with the corpse of a man who did bad or sinned which has irony in itself. In the painting, “The Gross Clinic” is said to be trying to embody confidence from the doctor (“Portrait of Dr. Samuel D Gross1”). During this time period, a lot of the viewers were shaken because they weren’t used to seeing a fearsome event in such realistic detail (“Portrait of Dr. Samuel D Gross1”). When looking at “The Anatomy Lesson” you can tell that the author is trying to show the teaching of anatomy from the doctor by making the tendons stand out with the coloring. In contrast, people can argue that in “The Gross Clinic” the author could come off controversial due to the gruesome of the painting. It does not look like Dr. Samuel Gross is even teaching them what to do and with the blood spread everywhere it almost comes off as disturbing. Nowadays we don’t have people watching surgeries being performed so we aren’t used to seeing the blood and bones of the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Victorian Era Dbq Essay

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Your parents might complain about their extensive work hours as well as how they are repetitively being undermined by their boss and their coworkers. Little did they know that in the Victorian Era both adults and children had it far worse than your parents could imagine. Textile factories were bad for English workers because they were dangerous and the workers were abused. Factories in the Victorian Era were unsanitary and held highly dangerous machinery that workers were subjected to use on a daily basis.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Author Mary Roach, in her novel Stiff, delivers informative content on the history and modern use of human cadavers, as well as her own personal commentary on the topic in order to expose the reader to the organ donation not only to save emergent lives, but also to progress scientific discoveries. Clare Boothe Luce, a journalist, prepares her audience for criticism by presenting an exposition to an audience of also journalists before she uncovers flaws in the American Press, however, first she must establish herself in a position credible to deliver criticism. In both works, Roach and Luce have a common theme behind each of their goals: to not only convince their audience of a controversial idea, but to also normalize it, and make discussion…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The article, “The beauty of Bodysnatching”, By Druin Burch is a piece that brings to stage questions of morality, and furthermore the implications of one’s ability to transcend societies limitations. Burch begins the article by introducing different anatomists all practicing in the same period of time, each of whom found their own unique way of coping with the controversy that came along with practicing surgery in the 1800’s. Burch centers his article around one anatomist in particular who had a great many differences from the other surgeons spoken of, both in his practice and in his way of looking at anatomy, this anatomist was Astley Cooper. In a time when desecration of the dead would be greatly taboo, Astley Cooper found a view of the world that allowed him to overcome the limitations that bridled most surgeons of the time.…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy When I started reading “The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy” I didn't find it interesting, I don't know if it was because it was a book about another book or because I thought it was going to be like Gray's Anatomy the show but it wasn't. However, the first thing I noticed about this book was the illustrations, they were magnificent. The bibliography was the other thing I noticed, I always knew that you needed sources to make a good book, but Bill Hayes had eight pages of sources!…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Mary Roach, in her 2003 non-fiction book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, offers captivating insight into what happens to bodies once they are donated to science. Roach sheds light on the sometimes dark history of cadaver usage and medicine, raising important questions about ethical and moral concerns related to those actions taken for the sake of increasing scientific knowledge. From being used as crash-test dummies to practice for anatomy students to populating body farms in the name of forensic science, human cadavers have been put to use in many, and often shocking, ways. However, the general public is unaware of what happens beyond those medical school dissections and the extreme other uses--such as plastic surgery experiments…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mary Roach's 2003 novel, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, explores rich and diverse experiences that post-mortem bodies undergo in the non-life phase. Roach gives a detailed description using open, uncensored episodes of interviews of people who work in close proximity with cadavers ranging from doctors to morticians to body farm personnel. Through personal fascination and humorous experiences, Roach shows how cadavers are the uncelebrated heroes of our past, present, and future time in medical and non-medical areas. The use of cadavers (both donated and non-donated) in all areas of life has been explained, going outside the expected medical use. Roach went out of her way to look into a rumor she heard about two brothers in China…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction As we all know, that anatomy is one of the historical subject and is still continuously being taught on due to its importance. The study itself begins as early as 1600 BC, with the emerging of Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. The study during this era is mostly description on some parts of the human body. During the time of Aristotle, dissection was implemented on animal and this leads to founding of comparative anatomy subject. It was not until during the reign of King Ptolemy that dissection on human was implemented.…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Gross Clinic Essay

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Gross Clinic is a painting done by Thomas Eakins, an American realist painter, who also dabbled in photography. Eakins is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important artists in American art history. Throughout Eakins career he had difficulties with the public and critics. The Gross Clinic, 1875 is an oil on canvas, 96" x 77" and was rejected by the art jury for the exhibition in Philadelphia, because it was too brutally realistic. The painting illustrates the prominent surgeon Dr. Samuel Gross conducting a surgery in the operating amphitheater of the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Pact Sparknotes

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the novel it displays the communities the three doctors had to live in during their upbringing. They talk about the harsh conditions they all lived under where it was hard to get out of that community, how they were always involved with gangs, thugs, and how all that negativity would then transfer to their schools. As George stated in the story, “ I don't remember the dentist’s name, but I never forgot what he did for me. He gave me a dream. And there was no greater gift for a smart kid growing up in a place where dreams were snatched away all the time.”…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    African American Disparity

    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Many medical schools would rob African American’s cemeteries in order to obtain their bodies for anatomical dissection. For example, “the structure that once housed the Medical College of Georgia…its concrete floor lay a chaos of desiccated body parts and nearly ten thousand human bones and skulls…” that were identified as stolen (120). As a result, these stolen bodies indicate how the subject of anatomy was once figured out through abusing mainly African Americans and dissecting their bodies. In comparison, African American prisoners were also used for anatomical dissection after being executed (123). These anatomical dissections show that the research done on the human body came about from a dark history that had multiple illegal actions in order to obtain information on subjects.…

    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    These men, though very far in the background, appear to be oblivious of what is happening at the medical station, oblivious of the suffering. This can be suggested to be indicative of life back at ‘home’. This aspect of the painting is truly sadistic of the society the painting was made in. At ‘home’, these men’s lives were merely mass numbers, not individual lives lost in agonising battle. ' Suicide in the Trenches' by Siegfried Sassoon incapsulates what I believe Sargent tried to display in his artwork.…

    • 1351 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Renaissance and how it changed man’s view of man. The Renaissance is the rebirth of many ideas and it’s a time period where changes were being made. The Renaissance took place in Europe and began around the year of 1400 and went on till about 1700. Many people were hugely impacted during this powerful life changing time.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    While other six year old girls loved playing dress up and pretended to be princesses, I was always too busy pretending to save the lives of my imaginary patients. My family members have always told me that I stood out from the other girls from a very young age, other girls were in love with the thought of meeting prince charming one day, while I was in love with the thought of becoming an individual who will be entitled to save the lives of strangers. In this paper I will explain why I have chosen to become a surgeon, and also why I believe it is the perfect job for me. I have finally decided on the thought of becoming a surgeon, but before I can actually make that dream a reality, I plan on majoring in Biology as an undergraduate student…

    • 1758 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    INTRODUCTION: This essay will discuss the relationship between the arts and the growing body of scientific knowledge during this time. Three major periods that will be discussed in this essay are the Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo. This essay will also explain the ways how different artists during the period of Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo used new scientific knowledge when creating their art work. Baroque period was the period where there were some disagreement between the Catholics and the Protestants.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The superintendent tells a story about how he heard that doctors would pull the les on the body. The doctors would do so just to make sure the body…

    • 1817 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays