Mitral valve disease in a 63-year old man with congestive heart failure: detail of (a) left atrium and (b) left ventricle showing enlargement disease in the edges of the anterior cusp. Watercolour by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1952.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1952.

1 painting : watercolour, with gouache ; sheet 14.3 x 25.7 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.

Mitral valve, from above, from below, anterior cusp of mitral valve, posterior cusp of mirtral valve, left auricle, left ventricle opened from below, left atrium from above Lettering inscribed in black ink as key, typed accompanying note with patient history explains presence of mitral systolic murmur, after contracting rheumatic fever in 1915. This case is a good example of mitral regurgitation, with only diseased cusps Bears number: 279/1952

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 34438i

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.