The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to Ivan Albright, Medical drawings made direct from patients & in operating room in Base Hospital # 11 located at Nantes, France. Manuscript, 1918-1919
© 2018 University of Chicago Library
Title: | Albright, Ivan, Medical drawings made direct from patients & in operating room in Base Hospital # 11 located at Nantes, France, Manuscript (Ms 1560) |
---|---|
Dates: | 1918-1919 |
Manuscript Number: | Codex Ms 1560 |
Size: | 1 volume, 25 x 35 cm. |
Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
Abstract: | Medical drawings of soldiers’ wounds by artist Ivan Albright, made in a military hospital in Nantes, France, 1918-1919. Codex Ms 1560. |
The manuscript is open for research.
Original documents, texts, and images represented by digital images linked to this finding aid are subject to U. S. copyright law. It is the user's sole responsibility to secure any necessary copyright permission to reproduce or publish documents, texts, and images from any holders of rights in the original materials.
The University of Chicago Library, in its capacity as owner of the physical property represented by the digital images linked to this finding aid, encourages the use of these materials for educational and scholarly purposes. Any reproduction or publication from these digital images requires that the following credit line be included: Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
Commercial publication projects require the permission of the University of Chicago Library and may be subject to a use fee. To order publication-quality reproductions, or for permission to copy or use any part of the digital images attached to this finding aid for any commercial purposes, please contact the Special Collections Research Center.
The images presented here may include materials reflecting the attitudes, language, and stereotypes of an earlier time period. These materials are presented as historical resources in support of study and research. Inclusion of such materials does not constitute an endorsement of their content by the University of Chicago.
The University of Chicago Library appreciates hearing from anyone who may have information about any of the images in this collection.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Albright, Ivan, Medical drawings made direct from patients & in operating room in Base Hospital # 11 located at Nantes, France. Manuscript, Codex Ms 1560, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Ivan Lorraine Albright (1897-1983) is most famously known for his grotesque yet highly detailed art that embodies the “Magic Realism” (also known as “Fabulism”) art movement of the 1930s. Prior to the creation of his most famous works, he was a medical drawer stationed in France during World War I from 1918-1919. This collection is comprised of a series of sketches from his time in operating rooms and hospitals recording the injuries and X-ray scans of injured soldiers.
Albright was born to Adam Emory Albright, a painter, and Clara Wilson Albright on February 20, 1897 in North Harvey, Illinois. Albright’s twin brother Malvin would study sculpture concurrent to Ivan’s portraiture study. Unlike their father who did impressionist style landscapes and scenes for commercials, Ivan demonstrated an interest in older schools including the work of Le Greco and Dreyer Albright briefly attended Northwestern University in 1915 but left in 1916, resuming his studies studying architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two years. His education was stalled by the outbreak of World War I.
Albright was enlisted as a solider in American Expeditionary Forces during World War I, and stationed in Base Hospital 11 in Nantes, France. It was during this time, he witnessed firsthand the medical atrocities and recorded the injuries for study. His talent was recognized by those around him and it became his job to record the injuries and information in watercolor, pen, and sometimes chalk or charcoal. His style was noted for being crisp and detailed, yet somewhat softly rendered given the exposed tendons and organs he would paint and sketch. Albright himself had not thought of himself as an artist during this time, but the experience built a foundation for his future artistic success.
After the war, Albright became an artist whose work is prominently displayed in the Art Institute of Chicago and other museums. He graduated from the Art Institute in Chicago, specializing in painting on 1923, and later attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and the National Academy of Design, New York. He married Josephine Medill Patterson, and had four children: Joseph, Adam, Blandina, and Alice. Albright would spend years perfecting a single portrait, utilizing meticulous attention to detail in the form of single hair brushes for minute details like hair and lace
Albright died of a stroke in November 18, 1983, in Woodstock, Vermont. Even on his deathbed, he still continued to paint and draw with the expressive illusory realism that characterized his entire catalogue.
The collection contains 42 sheets with 61 drawings made by Ivan Albright while serving as a medical drawer in a military hospital in Nantes, France from September, 1918 through January, 1919. The drawings include watercolor, pen, and pencil illustrations of soldiers’ wounds and transcriptions of x-rays of many of the same wounds.
Most of the drawings include an inscription identifying the soldier by name, serial number, rank, and company. In some cases, soldiers’ death dates are noted. Four drawings depict German prisoners of war.
The drawings in the collection are from two sketchbooks, purchased from Albright by Senator William Benton, and later donated by Benton to the University of Chicago. The drawings were exhibited by the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago in June, 1972. The drawings are now bound in a single volume in the order (largely chronological) in which they were displayed by the Renaissance Society, and retain the numbers assigned to them in the exhibit catalog. Four drawings, numbers 10, 13, 14, and 20, were not included in the collection when it was transferred to the University Library in 1984. Albright’s handwritten title pages for the two original sketchbooks may be found as part of sheets seven and nine. The drawings are listed and displayed here in the order in which they are now bound.
Ivan Albright, Medical Sketchbook, 1918, at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 1 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Calf Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 2 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Forearm Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 3 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Break, Right-Leg and Foot Wounds
Back, Left-Bone Break, Right-Calf Wound
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 4 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Hip Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 5 9 x 24 1/4 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Arm Bone Breaks, Right-Forearm Wound
Back, Left-Bone Break, Right-blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 6 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Throat Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 7 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Calf Wound
Front, Right-Preface to Vol. I
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 8 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Hip Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 9 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left- Buttock Wound
Front, Right-Preface to Vol. II
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 11 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Thigh Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 12 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Calf Wound
Back, Bone break |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 15 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Leg Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 16 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Hip Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 17 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Break, Right-Open Buttock Wound
Back, Left- blank, Right- Forearm Wound
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 18 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Break, Right-Calf Wounds
Back, Left- Bone break, Right- Shoulder Wound
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 19 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Shoulder Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 21 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Foot Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 22 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Thigh Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 23 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Hip Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 24 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Thigh Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 25 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Foot Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 26 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Break, Right-Upper Thigh Wound
Back, Left-blank, Right-Upper Arm Wound
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 27 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Break, Right-Anal and Buttock Wounds
Back, Left-blank, Right-Leg Wounds
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 28 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Break
Front, Right-Leg Wounds
Back, Left-Bone Break, Right-Forearm Wound
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 29 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Arm Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 30 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Leg Wound
Back, Bone Break |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 31 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Break, Forearm, Right-Shoulder Wound
Back, Left-blank, Right-Thigh Wound
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 32 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Buttock Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 33 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Buttock Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 34 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Upper Chest Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 35 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Shoulder Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 36 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Temple and Skull Wounds
Back, Bone Break |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 37 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Three Leg Wounds (double spread)
Back, Left-Healed leg Wound
Back, Right-Leg and Calf Wounds
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 38 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Break, Right-Shoulder Wound
Back, Left-Bone Break, Right-Upper Arm Wound
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 39 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Break, Right-Upper Thigh Wound
Back, Left-blank, Right-Shoulder Wound
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 40 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Break, Right-Buttock Wound
Back, Left-Bone Break, Right-Knee Wound
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 41 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Shoulder and Ribs, Right-Thigh Wound
Back, Left-Bone Break, Right-Leg in Traction
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 42 9 x 24 ¼ inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Left-Bone Injury, Knee Area, Right-Thigh Wound
Back, Left-Bone Break, Right-Forearm Wound
|
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 43 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Ankle Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 44 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Liver
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 45 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Buttock and Thigh Wound
Back, blank |
Codex Ms 1560 | Sheet 46 9 x 12 inches, watercolor, pen, and pencil Front, Ear and Neck Wound
Back, blank |