Published 2026-10-19
Keywords
- Doctor-Patient Relationship,
- Delivery of Healthcare,
- History of medicine,
- artwork,
- patient experience
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2026 Renée-Claude Bider, Mary Hunter, Katherine Lan, Gina Niksirat , Samy Amghar, Noha Benhararia, Jan Pack
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Abstract
McGill Journal of Medicine (MJM) MedTalks is a Podcast series where members of the medical and health science communities from McGill and beyond are interviewed on topics related to career, research, advocacy, and more. The aim of MedTalks is to open a space where experienced professionals and researchers can share information and advice for trainees in healthcare and medical sciences. In this episode, Renée-Claude Bider, MJM Podcast Team member and first-year medical student at the University of Ottawa interviews Prof. Mary Hunter, Associate Professor of Art History and Associate Member of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University. In their conversation, they discuss depictions of medicine in art from the 19th century forward, artworks recording the experience of the artists as patients and doctors, and the role of art in hospital settings.
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References
- Dr Pean at the Hôpital St-Louis Showing his Invention of the Clamping of the Blood Vessels, Henri Gervex, 1887: https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/avant-loperation-9549
- Dr Pean Operating, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, 1891-92: https://www.clarkart.edu/ArtPiece/Detail/Dr-Pean-Operating
- Rue des Moulins, 1894, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: https://www.nga.gov/artworks/46544-rue-des-moulins-1894
- Hospital Drawings, 1947-1949, Barbara Hepworth: https://hepworthwakefield.org/whats-on/barbara-hepworth-the-hospital-drawings/
- Matters of the heart, Christina Lammer, 2016 (part of her Hand Movies): https://www.sixpackfilm.com/en/catalogue/show/2384/
- Portrait of Dr. Farill, 1951, Frida Kahlo: https://www.fridakahlo.org/self-portrait-with-the-portrait-of-doctor-farill.jsp
- Archive of Edvard Munch writings: https://emunch.no/english.xhtml
- On the Operating Table, 1902-1903, Edvard Munch: https://www.munch.no/en/object/MM.M.00022
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- https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2023/06/a-developing-situation/
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- Lustre (Hémoglobine), 2014, Nicolas Baier: https://muhc.ca/art-and-heritage/Glenpublicart/nicholas-baier
- Saussage pants, 2004, Michael Farnan: https://michaelfarnan.ca/artwork/2378395-Sausage%20Pants.html
- Hunter M. Art and Surgery: The Expert Hands of Artists and Surgeons. InThe Palgrave Handbook of the History of Surgery 2017 Dec 14 (pp. 301-325). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
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- Tembeck T, Hunter M. From Queen Victoria to Sausage Pants: art in the superhospital. CMAJ. 2018 Jan 8;190(1):E18-20.
- Hunter M. The Waiting Time of Prostitution: Gynaecology and Temporality in Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Rue des Moulins, 1894. Art History. 2019 Feb;42(1):68-93.