A woman (Leang Yen?) with a large tumour on her right hand, reclining and concealing her face. Gouache, 18--, after Lam Qua, ca. 1838.

  • Lam, Qua.
Date:
[1838?]
Reference:
679514i
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  • Online

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About this work

Description

Identified by Rachman with Parker's case no. 5721: "... About the 10th January the patient was told that she might go home whenever she pleased, but she preferred remaining still longer where everything was provided for her. On the 19th January, the husband having returned for her, she was discharged in excellent spirits, and both were very thankful. The action of the liver had been excited, her skin has become soft and natural, and the prospect is that she may live for years, and enjoy good health. The opportunity was improved in impressing upon them their obligations to the living God, and author of all their mercies." The Yale website says "figure (probably male) covering face with left hand, right hand disfigured"

Publication/Creation

[1838?]

Physical description

1 painting : gouache ; sight 31.4 x 46.9 cm

Contributors

Lettering

Verso not seen (concealed by frame)

References note

Stephen D. Rachman, The mysteries of Lam Qua: medical portraiture in China 1836-1855, website, http://www.historicalvoices.org/lamqua/index.php (accessed 17 October 2009)
Peter Parker Collection, Medical Historical Library, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Yale University, website http://www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/parker (accessed 17 October 2009), no. 5
Sander L. Gilman, 'Lam Qua and the development of a westernized medical iconography in China', Medical history, 1986, 30: 57-69
Larissa N. Heinrich, The afterlife of images: translating the pathological body between China and the West, Durham: Duke University Press, 2008

Reference

Wellcome Collection 679514i

Reproduction note

After: one of at least 115 paintings executed in Canton (Guangzhou) by Lam Qua, ca. 1830-1850, for the American missionary Peter Parker (1804-1888), and which are now (2004) in the Peter Parker Collection, Medical Historical Library, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Yale University, New Haven; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art (Cornell University); and the Gordon Museum, Guy's Hospital, London: see cited works by Gilman, Rachman and Heinrich

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