Identifying the patient in George W Lambert'sChesham Street

Abstract

This paper takes as its focus one of the Edwardian period's most dramatic and little-understood paintings of a medical examination: George Washington Lambert's Chesham Street (1910). The painting shows an upper-class male patient lifting his shirt to reveal a muscular torso for examination by the doctor in the scene and the viewers outside it. The subject of a medical examination, I argue, legitimised the scrutiny of exposed male flesh and offered an opportunity for sensual pleasure between men.By way of a comparison with other portraits of the artist from around the same period, I interpret Chesham Street as a patient self-portrait, which reveals the artist's dual personalities of bohemian artist and Australian boxer: two personae that did not combine seamlessly, as revealed by the composite nature of the patient in Chesham Street. From a discussion of the artist as patient, I move to an analysis of other self-portraits by Lambert in which the artist is shown flexing his muscles, especially in the context of his passion for boxing. I consider how these portraits serve as complex inscriptions of illness and health and how this relates to the experience of living and working as an Australian expatriate artist in London in the early twentieth century.

Portrait of a process: arts-based research in a head and neck cancer clinic

“…Artistic representations of medicine and illness are present in anatomical and physiological maps of the human body, medical instruction manuals, treatment documentation and aesthetic works that have, over the centuries, facilitated the discovery and understanding of various aspects of medicine, health, illness and disability 1. Portraits, in particular, have been used to depict, illustrate and explain medical pathologies, pathopsychologies and trauma,2–5 to commemorate and critique physicians and their practices6 7 and to empower, inform and inspire patients, physicians and viewers alike 8–10. Portraits have also been found to embody a metaphorical power that serves as a potent source for analysis 7 11.…”

Portraiture and Health Care

“…2,3,4,5 The term medical portraiture has been applied to depictions that commemorate and critique physicians and their practices. 6,7…”

Portraits, patients and practitioners

“…The Patients' Portraits group of companion papers in Medical Humanities indicates the richness of the materials and the value of the insights they can generate. [1][2][3][4][5] They also show how artists working outside medical settings find inspiration in clinical encounters, which generally involve close visual scrutiny. Portraits have been made in many media, and sometimes the same depiction exists in a range of formats and materials.…”