When art meets surgery

The British sculptor Barbara Hepworth met orthopaedic surgeon Norman Capener in 1944, an encounter that proved to be fruitful in many ways. One of Hepworth's daughters, Sarah, had osteomyelitis (infection of the bone) and Capener had operated on her at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital in Exeter. The artists struck up a friendship with the surgeon, and Capener later visited the family in St Ives where Hepworth taught him to carve.

In return, Capener suggested that Hepworth observe him operate, initially in Exeter and later at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the London Clinic, where she also observed orthopaedic surgeon Reginald Watson-Jones and ENT surgeon Edward Rodney Garnett Passe. The rapid sketches she made in the theatre led to a remarkable series of almost 80 drawings and paintings, 35 of which are now on display at the Hepworth Wakefield's Barbara Hepworth: The Hospital Drawings.

A highlight is the series of six paintings based on her observations of Garnett Passe performing delicate “fenestration” of the ear operations, to reverse otosclerosis. She noted that she was struck by “the long concentration, the minuteness of the work and the weight of the equipment and the power of control behind the work”. Hepworth's drawings convey both the manual dexterity and compassion of surgeon and theatre sisters at work, and she sought to capture the abstract quality of surgically gowned figures moving within confined spaces. 

Hepworth later recalled how: “I became completely absorbed by two things: first, the co-ordination between human beings all dedicated to the saving of a life, and the way that unity of idea and purpose dictated a perfection of concentration, movement, and gesture, and secondly by the way this special grace (grace of mind and body), induce a spontaneous space composition, an articulated and animated kind of abstract sculpture very close to what I had been seeking in my own work.”

Such is the beautiful art of surgery. Whilst I am far from possessing any of these qualities portrayed in Hepworth's paintings, I certainly hope to emulate the amazing and unique works of these surgeons one day - where amidst the rush, the imperfection, and sometimes crude exchange between the theatre staff, something as magical as Hepworth's painting would be made manifest and witnessed again by another human being.      

Dr Capener - delicately putting on his gloves, eyes full of compassion

Barbara Hepworth at work

The scalpel

An ear operation

Orthopaedic operation

The scalpel 2

A theatre sister

Delivery of baby

Gowning up - a process which remains unchanged today