Maclise, Surgical Anatomy, 1856

Surgical Anatomy. By Joseph Maclise, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Second edition. London: John Churchill, New Burlington Street. 1856. 
 
 Heirs of Hippocrates 954: “Maclise was a student of Samuel Cooper and a prominent London surgeon. The thirty-five large colored lithographic plates were drawn by the author. Together with the text, they represent both fine artistry and fine scholarship.” 
 
Joseph Maclise, 1815 – 1880. 
 
G-M 13302 is the first edition: "The drawings of Maclise for Quain's Anatomy of the arteries and for his own Surgical anatomy are indeed done, as Quain wrote, with spirit and effect. These figures of anatomical dissection seem lifelike; in many plates the figure is shown as a torso, or a bust, or as a full-or half-length figure. The faces seem to be a gallery of portraits, perhaps of visitors to the 1851 Great Exhibition. They are mostly young men with fine hair-bearded, clean-shaven, or mustachioed, with or without sideburns; occasionally there are remarkably handsome black men. Many appear god-like. This is indeed 'high' art, only incidentally of an anatomical subject. If the analogy is not too far-fetched, Maclise's drawing may be compared with the work in different media of the English Romantic poets or of the composer Berlioz. The same comparisons have been made in relation to the work of the Victorian artist Daniel Maclise (1806-70), Joseph Maclise's older brother. They remained close, traveling in Italy together, and sharing houses in Bloomsbury and Chelsea" (Roberts & Tomlinson p. 564)