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War, Art and Surgery Exhibition at the Hunterian Museum
War, Art and Surgery Exhibition at the Hunterian Museum
On:
October 14, 2014
By:
Hannah Scally
Posted in
Blog, Centenary Events
0
Henry Tonks, Private Charles Deeks, 1916 (before operation), and Private Charles Deeks, 1916 (after operation). Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons.
Featuring war art from the First World War and later conflicts, an exhibition opens today at the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons in London. War, Art and Surgery examines the birth of modern facial reconstruction, and the evolution of military medicine.
The violence and carnage of the First World War meant, alongside other fields of medicine, an unprecedented demand for plastic surgery and dentistry. As E.B. Osborn commented ghoulishly in The Illustrated London News in 1918, ‘the present war has so vastly increased [the surgeon’s] opportunities and experience that he can now accomplish feats of physical reconstruction that were utterly undreamed of in peace time.’
The work on display is often shocking, depicting debilitating wartime injuries, as well as the work of surgeons and medical professionals in these fields. This exhibition contains a complete collection of 72 pastels by the artist and surgeon Henry Tonks, which document the injuries and treatment of First World War soldiers. The soldiers were patients of Harold Gillies, a pioneer in the field of plastic surgery, who set up a facial injury ward at the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot and a hospital in Sidcup specialising in facial repair.
Henry Tonks, The Birth of Plastic Surgery, 1916. Pen and ink wash in sepia on paper. Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons.
Tonks was a well-established artist before the First World War and taught major artists of the day at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. He was also a trained surgeon, and served as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corp in WW1: his surgery pastels served as a formal documentation of Gillies’ medical treatment. He became an official war artist in 1918, touring and documenting events on the Western Front.
Tonks’ work is juxtaposed with the contemporary work of Julia Midgley, who depicts military surgery and service personnel injured in Afghanistan, as well as the training of military surgeons. Both artists depicted injured servicemen and women that they had met and observed.
‘War, Art and Surgery explores the crucial role played by military medics, past and present,’ said Sam Alberti, Director of the Hunterian Museum. ‘Presenting Tonks and Midgley side-by-side reinforces how far military surgery and reconstruction have advanced in a century; but that rehabilitation remains a long journey.’
Julia Midgley, MERT with Casualties, 22 November 2012, Hospex Course, Army Medical Services, Strensall Camp, York. © Julia Midgley.
The portraits shown at the top are by Henry Tonks, and depict Private Charles Deeks of the 1st King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. He was injured on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, aged 25, and admitted two days later to the Cambridge Military Hospital. A large piece of shell had struck Deeks’ mouth, destroying his lower lip and a portion of the upper. Deeks underwent a series of operations to repair his lower face and returned to active duty in April 1917. He survived the war, but was not finally discharged until August 1922. The work by Midgley (right) depicts medical staff on board the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) simulator, training in the treatment and care of casualties.
War, Art and Surgery is on at the Hunterian Museum from 14 October 2014 – 14 February 2015. See the exhibition page here.
Follow the links below for First World War coverage of Henry Tonks, plastic surgery and medicine.
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