18 May 2011

The Wellcome Library in London has added to its collection of drawings with the acquisition of a magnificent portrait drawing of the French surgeon Ange-Bernard Imbert-Delonnes (1747–1818) by Pierre Chasselat – a portrait with a distinctive feature.

The drawing is unusual in that in addition to its more conventional features, the minutely detailed interior includes, on the right, a gruesome souvenir of Imbert Delonnes's proudest achievement: a gigantic testicular tumour (sarcocele) which – in a controversial operation – Imbert-Delonnes removed from Charles-François Delacroix, the French foreign minister.

The drawing in black chalk is signed by the artist and dated "L'an 8" (year 8 in the French Revolutionary calendar, meaning 1799–1800). The portrait itself, and the identity of the man portrayed, were discovered by the firm of Didier Aaron, from whom the drawing has been purchased by the Wellcome Library with the aid of grants from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Art Fund.

The drawing is both a work of art and a historical document. In accordance with Imbert-Delonnes's self-image, it shows him sitting in a lordly pose in a fashionable interior at the dawn of the Empire period. In his professional life, he was a fearless and forceful surgeon who made his name in the French Army serving under Napoleon at the battle of Marengo (1800). In the drawing, he is holding his pen as if putting the finishing touches to a manuscript of the "Progress of the art of healing". The operation on Delacroix proceeded despite seven of his eight medical advisers counselling against touching the tumour, which weighed some 28 pounds.

The seemingly incongruous display of excised body parts on a plinth in an elegant interior makes the drawing a vivid witness to the sensibility of the surgical elite of the time – and the sarcocele has its own subplot.

Its unwilling owner, Charles-François Delacroix, was nominally the father of the painter Eugène Delacroix, although he was almost certainly not his biological father, owing to this very tumour. Eugène Delacroix's biological father was reputed to be Charles-François Delacroix's successor as French foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, to whom Eugène bore a strong physical resemblance.

Simon Chaplin, Head of Wellcome Library, says: "This extraordinary drawing is an outstanding addition to the Wellcome Library's collection of medical portraits. Like a general surrounded by the trophies of battle, the depiction of Imbert-Delonnes' reminds us of an age when every operation was an ordeal for the patient, and every success a triumph for the surgeon."

Ludmilla Jordanova, Professor of Modern History at King's College London, says: "For centuries medical practitioners have been interested in portraiture; they have commissioned and collected, bought and sold, displayed and reproduced many important works of historical and aesthetic interest. Portraits shaped and disseminated professional identities; they often resulted from significant collaborations between artists and sitters. This gorgeous portrait is a major acquisition for the Wellcome Library, not least in extending its holdings of portraits of French practitioners. Although the role that portraits have long played in constructing the image of medical practitioners is well known, its detailed, scholarly study is still young. This portrait will provide historians with rich food for thought, especially concerning the status of surgeons in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods."

The Wellcome Library is situated in the Wellcome Collection building and is open to the public free of charge. The drawing may be seen in the Library's Rare Materials Room.

Further information about the drawing can be found at its entry in the Library catalogue. 

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NOTES TO EDITORS

Media contact
Tim Morley
Senior Media Officer
T  020 7611 8612
E  t.morley@wellcome.ac.uk

The price paid by the Wellcome Library for the portrait was £28 000, including a grant of £8000 from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and a grant of £5000 from the Art Fund.

The Wellcome Library has a French Collection, which was created by the founder of the Wellcome Library and Wellcome Trust, Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936). It contains memorabilia, manuscripts and portraits of eminent French figures such as Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, Hyacinthe Vincent and Etienne-Jules Marey. For his work in creating the collection, Wellcome was appointed to the Légion d'Honneur.

The MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund is a government fund that helps regional museums, record offices and specialist libraries in England and Wales to acquire objects relating to the arts, literature and history. It was established at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in 1881 and continues to be part of its nationwide work. The annual grants budget, currently £600,000, is provided by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). Each year, the Purchase Grant Fund considers some 250 applications and awards grants to around 100 organisations, enabling acquisitions of around £3.5 million to go ahead.

The Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for works of art and plays a major part in enriching the range and quality of art on public display in the UK. Supported by some 80,000 individual members, it campaigns, fundraises and gives money to museums and galleries to buy, show and share art, and offers many ways of enjoying it through the National Art Pass. As well as supporting the buying of works of art, initiatives under its funding programme include: sponsoring the UK tour of the ARTIST ROOMS collection so that it reaches several million people across the UK each year, and fundraising: two recently successful campaigns include bringing in £6 million to save the Staffordshire Hoard for the West Midlands and Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s The Procession to Calvary for Nostell Priory, in partnership with the National Trust. Over the past year, the Art Fund has given £24 million for works of art to 248 museums and galleries. The Art Fund is funded entirely by its art-loving and museum-going supporters who believe that great art should be for everyone to enjoy.

Wellcome Library is one of the world's major resources for the study of medical history, and provides access to a growing collection of contemporary biomedical information resources relating to consumer health, popular science, biomedical ethics and the public understanding of science. The Library is situated within Wellcome Collection, a free visitor destination for the incurably curious. Located at 183 Euston Road, London, Wellcome Collection explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future.

Wellcome Library is part of the Wellcome Trust, a global charity dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities; its breadth of support including public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. The Trust is independent of both political and commercial interests.