Dr. Péan Operating

"If I weren't a painter, I would like to be a doctor," Toulouse-Lautrec once said. The artist regularly attended surgeries performed in public by the distinguished Dr. Jules-Émile Péan. In this painting, Péan is shown with a look of intense concentration as he inserts forceps into a patient's gaping mouth, held open by an assistant. The close-up viewpoint and sketchy brushwork convey the urgency and immediacy of a surgical procedure in progress.

Credit: Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955