Medicine, art history : The Art of Discussion
- Medicine is not a solitary endeavor, and staff meetings are essential to our practice.
- In art history as well, confronting one’s analysis with others is fundamental.
- Caricaturists have certainly taken notice, delighting in poking fun at the sometimes heated debates where distinguished individuals can lose their cool in an effort to have their arguments prevail...
- Beyond a keen sense of observation, the confrontation of viewpoints is a key element of iconodiagnosis—it is these exchanges that make the exercise so rich and engaging.
- Let’s hope the atmosphere at ISI remains more peaceful than in these caricatures!
Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761–1845) was a French artist who specialized in small portraits and finely executed trompe-l’oeil works. He enjoyed inserting himself among the characters in his paintings and created many playful self-portraits.
He also became known for his caricatures, collected in a series of lithographs titled Les Grimaces, in which he mocked his contemporaries.
Here, the debates seem just as passionate among physicians as they are among art enthusiasts.
Louis Leopold Boilly (1761-1845)
Consultation de médecins 1824-1827
Collection des profils et grimaces Lithographie en couleur ;31,5cm
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Louis Leopold Boilly (1761-1845)
Les amateurs de tableaux 1824-1827
Collection des profils et grimaces
Lithographie en couleur ; 31,5 cm
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Louis Leopold Boilly (1761-1845)
Consultation de médecins 1824-1827
Collection des profils et grimaces Lithographie en couleur ;31,5cm
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
James Gillray (1756–1815), a British caricaturist and engraver influenced by William Hogarth, became especially well known for his political cartoons.
In this piece, he pokes fun at a group of experts admiring a collection of paintings by George Morland (1763–1804), an artist portrayed here as a peasant, known for his rustic scenes.
The intensely focused, serious, and pretentious expressions of the experts starkly contrast with the simplicity and pastoral nature of the pig-themed paintings.
James Gillray (1756-1815)
Connoisseurs looking at paintings of George Morland 1807
Etching, hand coloured
Rijskmuseum Amsterdam
