Three surgeons performing a liver transplant operation on an eight-year old boy. Etching by John Bellany, 1989.

  • Bellany, John.
Date:
1989
Reference:
675074i
  • Pictures

About this work

Description

In 1988 Bellany received a transplanted liver at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. The surgeon was Professor Roy Calne. "A year after the operation he was back at Addenbrooke's in the same theatre, drawing a liver transplant. The recipient was a boy of eight and the medical team was the same one that had operated on him. The little boy's life was saved to the sound of Mozart's Magic flute. It was one of the most moving experiences of his life and he was astonished by what he saw: 'Just the skill of these people, standing up all that time, working with that intensity. The stitching! I couldn't believe the speed of it, like someone drawing frenetically. How they can do it day after day, week after week. These people are underrated. So many bad things happen - let's hear sometimes about some of the great things that happen.' The drawings acted as a preparatory studies for a suite of etchings. The boy's health has flourished."--MacEwen, loc. cit.

Publication/Creation

1989

Physical description

1 print : etching, with aquatint and plate tone ; platemark 40.3 x 45.2 cm

Contributors

Edition

Edition of 30.

References note

John McEwen, John Bellany, Edinburgh 2005, p. 165

Terms of use

©John Bellamy All Rights Reserved 2019/Bridgeman Images

Reference

Wellcome Collection 675074i

Type/Technique

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores

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