The Left Atrium

words that pour into the room with the doorway. One step forward and I will suffering, this love for their father and deadly weight of quicksilver, words that be in their room, in their world of grief. compassion for one another. I can do will weigh upon them so heavily for the I can see nothing that my presence in nothing more, other than write these rest of their lives, words that soon trail the room would or could add. I wait in words, with which I hope have hon- off into mere vibrations devoid of this state of limbo, watching their grief, oured what I witnessed that day in the meaning. I am so sorry. I am so sorry, we which my gaze does not penetrate. doorway. did everything we could … They are alone as I watch. And as I wait They hold each other, dissolving in I realize that my task is to move neither Stephen Workman shared tears of anguish. My words spo- forward nor back but to pursue a third General Internist ken, I feel myself disappear from their option: simply to witness this family’s Halifax, NS consciousness. I wait. Half in, half out of the room and their world, I wait to know what to do next, I wait for some measure of certainty. I go to step back, Send us your regrets and then check myself. I cannot and should not leave. I lean forward, and “Experience,” Oscar Wilde wrote, “is the name everyone gives to their mis- stop. To what end will I enter? I sense takes.” So let us have the benefit. Why not write about the things you’ve above me the doorway bisecting my learned the hard way in medicine? How would you replay the scenes that two limited choices. Neither seems ad- weren’t in the script? We welcome submissions of unpublished poetry, mem- equate. One step back into the corridor oir and fiction for The Left Atrium. The writing should be candid, but patient and I will be back in my world, a busy confidentiality must be respected. A sense of humour never hurts, and medical world filled with new problems anonymity is optional. In general, prose manuscripts should be limited to 1000 to solve and new patients to treat. One words and poems to 75 lines. We won’t launder the truth, but neither will we step back and I will be gone forever, an hang you out to dry. Send us your regrets at [email protected] elusive figure who appeared briefly in a

Lifeworks : an American in Paris

ow considered one of the most ing the prudish mores of 19th-century Nimportant painters in the history America. This conflict, however, was of American art, Thomas Eakins was a not the guiding narrative of Thomas controversial figure in his day. Trained Eakins 1844–1916 : un réaliste américan, in Pennsylvania, he left in 1866 to study presented at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris at the École des beaux-arts in Paris for in February. Originating from the three years. Returning to his home Museum of Art, this exhi- town of Philadelphia, Eakins joined the bition of paintings and photographs staff of the Pennsylvania Academy of shed light on the painter’s fascination Fine Arts in 1876, introducing the with the human body. methods he had learned in Europe. He At a time when landscape painting insisted, for example, that students was dominant in the United States, draw directly from the nude human Eakins maintained that art students body rather than from plaster casts of should be trained in anatomy and par- antique sculptures (the standard proce- ticipate in dissections to the same de- dure in American art schools at the gree as medical students. Anatomical time). When, in 1886, Eakins was given lessons were indeed an important part the option of either changing his teach- of Eakins’ training at the École des ing policies or resigning, he chose the beaux-arts, but he also frequented the latter. The artist’s battle with the Penn- anatomical amphitheatre at the École sylvania Academy is well known, and de médecine as well as at the Jefferson Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven Thomas Eakins, John Biglin in a Single Eakins is now often depicted as a rebel- Medical College in Philadelphia. Scull, 1873–74. Oil on canvas. lious innovator committed to challeng- Eakins also encouraged the production

CMAJ • JUNE 11, 2002; 166 (12) 1573 De l’oreille gauche

of anatomical moulages for use by his seems to have been students. These wax sculptures of the more interested in human body were already standard the structure and teaching tools at medical schools. Some form of the male of the wax fragments used by Eakins body than in creating were installed in a glass case at the a spiritual experience Musée d’Orsay; representations of a for the viewer. neck and part of a shoulder as well as a Of course, Eakins foot and hand were hung from hooks is now most famous like slabs of meat, surrounded by the for his paintings of framed paintings and photographs that anatomy theatres. Eakins produced. When students at the The artist’s interest in anatomy is medical school of the apparent in many of his works. When University of Pennsyl- Eakins painted his friend John Biglin vania commissioned rowing (John Biglin in a Single Scull, Eakins to paint a por- 1873–74) he featured the athlete’s body trait of their professor leaning forward, with face, neck, arm of surgery, he created and leg muscles tensed in anticipation The Clinic of Doctor Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia Thomas Eakins, Study of Movement: History of a Jump, of the next stroke. Although it may Agnew (1889). Agnew 1885. Contemporary print from original negative. seem only logical that Eakins empha- is shown stepping sized the mechanics of the body in an away from the operat- image of sport, he did so even in a rare ing table to lecture to his students. of Dr. Agnew’s lessons, is among the religious work. The Crucifixion (1880) These men, who fade into the darkened students shown in attendance. Appear- shows Christ’s head bowed and in background of the amphitheatre, ing at the extreme right side of this large shadow, while light draws attention to demonstrate various reactions to the canvas, Eakins was painted by his wife, the fleshly details of his physique, in- medical spectacle before them: some Susan Macdowell Eakins. cluding the carefully rendered texture lean forward with interest or strain to Although in many ways an illumi- of his skin and thin layer of body hair. see the stage more clearly, others slump nating exhibition, Thomas Eakins Christ’s fingers curl, and his wrist with boredom and even fall asleep. 1844–1916 included little discussion bones surface under the weight of his Eakins, selected to produce this work (despite its title) of “realism.” Never- heavy body. In this painting Eakins because he had himself observed many theless, a kind of definition emerged from the show. Realism was revealed as an approach to artistic production that required artists to undergo extensive training in order to see the world — and in this case, the body — in a partic- ular way. Drawing numerous links be- tween medicine and art making, the in- stallation at the Musée d’Orsay ultimately portrayed Eakins as a painter who strove to see the human form with the disciplined eyes of a 19th-century surgeon. Thomas Eakins 1844–1916 will ap- pear at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from June 18 to Sep- tember 15, 2002.

Lianne McTavish Dr. McTavish is an associate professor of visual culture at the University of New University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Thomas Eakins, The Clinic of Doctor Agnew, 1889. Oil on canvas. Brunswick and specializes in the history of early modern French art and medicine.

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