The four doctors

“Where else in the present day will we find heads painted like these…”

The Spectator, London

Late in the 19th century Mary Elizabeth Garrett gave a large endowment to establish the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore. The men we see here were the founding faculty – Welch, Osler, Halsted and Kelly. Garrett had previously had her portrait done by John Singer Sargeant. She decided to commission the artist to produce this work marking the opening of the new medical school. Remarkably, the sittings for the portrait took place during 1904, across the Atlantic in Sargeant’s Tite Street studio in London. Sargeant wanted a dramatic background, so the wall of his studio was demolished to allow the admission of a large globe. It is easy to think this is an image of white male privilege, but the background to this work is much deeper. US medical education at this time was unregulated, financially driven, entirely theoretical and many faculty little more than quacks. Garrett established Johns Hopkins with a 4 year curriculum, access to laboratories, cadaver dissection, and bedside teaching with patients. Barriers for woman to access a medical school were removed for the first time. This is a woman celebrating her high profile faculty with pride. #canyounamethem #letsmakelemonade