Anatomical exhibition includes rare Victorian-era drawing of a black body

"Drawn with care and precision, the image may be the only anatomical drawing of a black body made during the Victorian age. Now it is part of a new exhibition that focuses on the work of Joseph Maclise, a surgeon and artist whose work including his 1851 atlas Surgical Anatomy made the human anatomy accessible to the general public, and who was the brother of the celebrated artist Daniel Maclise."

"Jack Gann, the curator at Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, which is hosting the Beneath the Sheets: Anatomy, Art and Power exhibition, says Joseph Maclise's work also broke new ground by centring black bodies and focusing on queer desire. But when the book was published in the US that image was the only one omitted, with racial prejudice and segregationist attitudes in the lead-up to the American civil war blamed for the decision."

"Maclise used living models from the streets of London and Paris to create his drawings, combining their figures often idealised visions of the human body with dissections of corpses taken from the morgues of the French capital. Maclise used living models from the streets of London and Paris, combined with dissections of corpses, to create his drawings. Illustration: Mark Newton Photography His drawings were intricate and delicate, often homing in on small details that other artists might have avoided."

An unnamed Black man appears with eyes closed and innards exposed in a precise anatomical drawing that may be the only Victorian anatomical depiction of a Black body. The image forms part of an exhibition at the Thackray Museum of Medicine showcasing Joseph Maclise, a surgeon-artist whose 1851 atlas Surgical Anatomy popularized human anatomy and sold widely. The US edition omitted that portrait, reportedly due to racial prejudice and segregationist attitudes before the American Civil War. Maclise combined living models from London and Paris with dissections from Paris morgues, producing intricate, idealized figures that nonetheless include scars, piercings and consistently rendered genitalia. Curatorial interpretation highlights centring of Black bodies and queer desire.

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