Teaching watercolor of hanging local subject with hip injury, 1848-1854
Description:
Teaching watercolor of local male subject with hip injury. Subject is depicted hanging by his neck from a point above him. Painting has two views of subject, front and back. Front view shows subject hanging with head tilted back so only right side of face is visible. Black strings are wrapped around his neck and extend to top of painting, with addtitional string tied around subject's left arm. Subject is unclothed, and right hip shows an injury, leaving his left leg hanging lower than right leg. Back view of subject shows brown hair on the back of his head, black strings extending to top of painting and string tied around his upper right arm. This view shows full extent of injury, with red bulbous area covering entire right hip. Watercolor is framed in green sewn textile, with metal grommets in each of the four corners.
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Notes:
Henry Jacob Bigelow employed artist Oscar Wallis exclusively from 1848 - 1854 to paint a series of large teaching watercolors to illustrate Bigelow's lectures at Harvard Medical School. Wallis painted the teaching diagrams from local subjects and from the atlases of established medical authorities. The effort cost Bigelow $6,000. In 1890 Bigelow presented the watercolors to Reginald H. Fitz to be used in the Harvard Medical School's Department of Anatomy. The watercolors were transferred into the Warren Anatomical Museum between 1890 and 1930.
