Cerebral haemorrhage and cystic kidneys in a 47-year old man: (a) brain section, showing clot in relation to temporal lobes, (b) right kidney section, revealing honeycombed architectural-like structures and (c) drawing of left kidney specimen, covered in carbuncular swellings. Watercolour by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1958.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1958.

1 painting : watercolour, with gouache and pencil ; sheet 38.8 x 29.6 cm

Barbara Evelyn Nicholson (1906 – 1978) trained at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1923. She began her artistic career as a medical illustrator and was a founder member of the Medical Artists Association, where she is recorded as serving on an exhibition committee in October 1949. By 1951, she had illustrated G.F. Gibberd, A short textbook of midwifery (2nd ed., London: J. & A. Churchill, 1941) and Philip Wiles, Essentials of orthopaedics (London: J. & A. Churchill, 1949). The Medical Artists Association records last list her, in 1951. In the 1950s her focus moved to botanical subjects and from the late 1950s – 1970s she was a prolific botanical illustrator.

<...> aged 47, <D4>, cerebral haemorrhage, temporal lobes, r<ight> kidney cut open, outline of left kidney Lettering inscribed in pencil Bears number: 524/1958

The watercolours and pen and ink drawings held by Wellcome Collection were painted by Barbara Nicholson at Ashford Hospital, Ashford, Middlesex, between 1946 and 1951, at the request of the surgeon Norman Matheson.

Wellcome Collection 36028i

Presented to the Wellcome Institute Library in 1987 by Ashford Postgraduate Medical Centre, as part of a collection of medical illustrations by Barbara E. Nicholson.