The Gross Clinic

The Gross Clinic

The Gross Clinic is the bloody realism of an 1875. Thomas Eakins painting of the renowned Philadelphia surgeon. Samuel Gross at work was deemed shocking and offensive in its day. Eakins had a unique feel for his subject from dissecting cadavers at  Gross’clinic At Jefferson Medical College. He portrays Gross in the middle of surgery on a young man’s infected femur , pausing to make a point to medical student. Eakins originally hoped the painting would be prominently displayed at the 1875 centennial exhibition in Philadelphia. Instead it debuted in an exhibit of an army hospital model ward and then languished in obscurity of years. In 2002  michael kimmelman of the new york times called it “hands down the finest  19th-century american painting.” When jefferson medical college put the Gross clinic up for sale five years later, the Philadelphia museum of art and the pennsylvania academy of fine arts raised $68 million to keep it in the city where eakins spent most of his life.

Article From American History Magazine April 2013