The Agnew Clinic, by Thomas Eakins. Oil on canvas, 1889.

In honor of my friend's recent acceptance to medical school, today I thought I'd do a little something by Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins, famous American artist and winner of the "Coolest Middle Name I've Ever Heard" award. Eakins' most famous painting is undoubtedly The Gross Clinic, from 1875, so today I'm showcasing its little-known counterpart, The Agnew Clinic. It's probably not a shock to learn that Eakins himself attended medical school, where he acquired a great understanding of human anatomy, an eye for detail, and a desire to paint subjects that tend to gross people out. (I should mention that The Agnew Clinic is much more tame than the aptly named Gross Clinic, which includes a scalpel digging into a leg, lots of blood, and a poor mother in the background shielding her eyes in horror.) Critic Montague Marks pretty much sums up the generally held view of both the Gross and Agnew Clinics at the time: "Delicate or sensitive women or children suddenly confronted by the portrayal of these clinical horrors might receive a shock from which they would never recover."

The man who gives The Agnew Clinic its title is Dr. Hayes Agnew, Anatomy Professor and Chair of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Agnew had a very long and prominent medical career - he had served as an army surgeon during the civil war, and was one of the doctors who tended to President James Garfield after he was shot. A few months before Agnew was about to retire, a group of medical students came to Thomas Eakins and gave him $750 to paint a portrait of their professor. While the students had only requested a painting of Agnew himself, Eakins had so much respect for Dr. Agnew that he offered to paint the entire clinic, assistants and students as well. Agnew Clinic is the largest of all of Thomas Eakins' paintings, at 11 feet long and 6.5 feet tall.

A comparison of The Gross Clinic and The Agnew Clinic reveals some of the surgical advances that were made between 1875 and 1889. One difference is in the lighting - the patient in Gross Clinic is illuminated by an overhead skylight, a common surgical practice. Agnew Clinic, however, has the patient bathed in artificial light, which surgeons had decided not only offered better illumination but also allowed surgery to take place during any time of the day. Advanced ideas in sterilization also play a role in the two paintings - while The Gross Clinic doctors operate in their suits, those in The Agnew Clinic all wear white surgical gowns. (Unfortunately, they hadn't yet caught on to gloves, face masks or caps.)

A final notable difference is in the treatment of women. Eakins was somewhat of a revolutionary when it came to gender differences - he was once fired from a teaching job when he had one of his co-ed classes draw an entirely nude male model. The only woman in Gross Clinic is the mother of the patient, a little old lady who can't bear to watch any of the proceedings, and really serves as a background character. However, Agnew Clinic contains two women, both prominently placed. The first is the nurse, who stands and watches the surgery very stoically, not at all grossed out by what is going on. The second woman is the patient receiving the surgery, who is being treated for breast cancer. It seems lewd to think that Eakins has painted a topless woman if you forget that topless women have been an artistic mainstay for ages. I, for one, think Eakins may have felt the same way about the human body as my med school friend - that once you really understand how sex works, it isn't nearly as erotic as it seems.