Teaching watercolor of a mass removed from the jaw of a woman with a microscopic view of the tissue
Description:
Possibly of a local Boston patient Large watercolor showing several views of a mass removed from a woman. In the upper center is the view of the mass in the jaw below the left ear of an older woman. Her head is turned and held in place by a hand on her head. In the upper left is an exterior view of the removed mass, and in the upper right is a cross section showing the interior. At the bottom is a large microscopic view of the various types of cells within the mass, with a red blood cell for scale. Watercolor is framed in green sewn textiles, 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.
