Anterior and posterior walls of consuming gastric ulcer in stomach when opened, turned back and drawn in section, in a 55-year old man with fatal haemorrhage (due to artery eroded by ulcer). Watercolour and black ink diagram by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1948.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1948.

1 painting : watercolour, with gouache, pencil and black ink ; sheet 32.6 x 28.9 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.

Greater curvature cut open and turned back, oesophagus, remains of pancreatic duct, posterior wall of ulcer with partially digested pancreas in base, pancreas, duodenum dilated, lesser curvature, left lobe liver turned back, eroded artery responsible for fatal haemorrhage anterior wall of ulcer adherent to posterior surface of liver, stomach, <...> age 55, gastric ulcer Lettering inscribed in black ink as key with explanatory details stating particular properties of ulcer Bears number: 119/1948

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 32676i

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.