09 December 2009

Thump, Thump

I dream of being an anatomy artist.



Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body
(1858, First Edition) is one of my most favorite picture books (see Alice in Wonderland for more on this topic). Although the book's text is meant to be prioritized, the companion illustrations are renowned for their elegant, rustic, and emotional presentation.



The publishers wanted to ascribe joint authorship of the book to its illustrator, surgeon and anatomist Henry Vandyke Carter, but Gray objected. Gray went on to be celebrated for the book's significant contribution to the medical field while Henry Vandyke Carter was all but historically forgotten.