Sale of Eakins' medical painting stirs controversy in Philadelphia

Dr. Samuel D. Gross stands next to the patient with light cascading across his face and blood on his uplifted hand. Other physicians work intently as Dr. Gross turns to address medical students in the amphitheatre. To his right, a woman covers her face as dead bone is cut from her relative's thigh. A new surgical technique is in progress, one that will replace the standard of the time: amputation.

The 1875 painting "The Gross Clinic," by Thomas Eakins, which captures a dramatic moment in medical history, now finds itself at the center of a drama as several Philadelphia institutions vie to determine the portrait's fate.

In mid-November 2006, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia agreed to sell the painting for $68 million to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. The museums plan to display the portrait on a rotating basis. The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts immediately began a fundraising campaign when the sale was announced Nov. 11. Local art museums and government institutions had until Dec. 26, 2006, to match the offer.

The College of Physicians of Philadelphia has lent its support to the campaign. "You have a world-famous surgeon doing an operation on a Philadelphia patient in a Philadelphia institution. If it were not to be in Philadelphia it would be destructive to our medical heritage and our artistic heritage," said George M. Wohlreich, MD, director and CEO of the college.

Kathleen Foster, curator of American art for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said Dr. Gross was known in his time as the emperor of American surgery for pioneering new surgical techniques and instruments. His guide, "System of Surgery in 1859," was in the pockets of physicians worldwide.

Mark Pascua, a second-year medical student at Jefferson, said he had mixed feelings about the sale. He is awed by the 8-foot-by-6½-foot portrait, which hangs in Jefferson Alumni Hall. Alumni donated the painting to the school in 1878. But "I rarely saw its wonders exposed to the outside world, and in some respects I am happy that thousands of people will be exposed to the painting," he said via e-mail.

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell, state representatives, city officials and civic leaders also are exploring ways to prevent the transaction. For example, Mayor John F. Street is looking into whether the painting could be declared a historic object, which would prevent it from leaving the city.

Anne d'Harnoncourt, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said the fundraising campaign was seeing a flood of support. By mid-December, 40% of the money had been raised.

"It has galvanized everybody's attention in large part because the painting represents Philadelphia's huge strengths in the sciences, in the arts and in education," d'Harnoncourt said.

Brian G. Harrison, chair of Jefferson's board of trustees, explained in a statement that the school was not an art museum and the painting's sale would allow the school to invest in its city campus.

"By selling this painting ... we are managing our resources most prudently and will be able to further our essential responsibility to educate, teach and heal," Harrison said. There has been discussion of creating a replica to hang at the school.