Before the Operation

Jules-Émile Péan was one of the best-known surgeons in Paris in 1887, and here, at the Saint-Louis hospital, he is about to operate in a black coat and bow tie. He holds a small steel clamp and explains it to the students and assistants pressing around him. The painting's full title spells out the lesson. He is teaching his method of clamping blood vessels to stop bleeding, and the forceps he developed are still known by his name. On the table lies a young woman, already anaesthetised, and a doctor holds her wrist. Glass jars and instruments wait on the side table. When Gervex showed the picture at the Salon that year, some critics saw it as a modern version of Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp. Péan's widow gave it to the State in 1918.