The life of Frank Netter
Frank Netter was born in Manhattan on 25 April 1906. He was an American surgeon. However, he is best known for his lifelike, aesthetic medical illustrations. He started his life with a passion for art. He got training as an artist at the Art Students’ League in New York City and the National Academy of Design. By the third decade of his life, he became a successful commercial artists, whose work continuously appeared in different national magazines (Quinnipiac University, qu.edu) including some of the best known publications such as The New York Times and The Saturday Evening Post. His friends such as Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell were among the best-known artists of that time (Washko, 16). However, his family, especially his mother wanted him to go for a more respectable and stable profession, so he left the artwork and started studying medicine at New York University Medical College (Quinnipiac University, qu.edu).
During the student life in the medical college, Netter again started following his passion by making drawings and studying with the help of those drawings. He started producing visual representations of the class notes that were helpful in understanding the material and recalling the information (Quinnipiac University, qu.edu). Netter also financed his education with the help of medical illustrations. He drew several medical illustrations for his professors’ articles and books (Washko, 16).
After completing the graduation and surgical residency in 1933, and a brief period of private practice, he started moving towards the career of medical illustrator for pharmaceutical companies. He worked with Ciba, a Swiss pharmaceutical company (which later became Ciba-Geigy and then became Novartis). During that time, Ciba developed a new formulation for the drug digitalis, a heart-related drug. The company wanted a medical illustrator to represent the drug to the physician community in the market. Netter developed such a nice illustration of a human heart that the company began receiving several requests for the illustration. In the year 1936, Netter developed a life-long partnership with Ciba, and adapted the career of art (Washko, 16) after finding that he can work as an artist. He produced over 100 images for the company. Overall, it is thought that he produced nearly 4000 illustrations during his lifetime. He had an enthusiastic production schedule throughout his life (16).
Netter was not a kind of person, who wanted fame. In spite of his distinction in the field of medical illustration, he never tried to become a media star. He lived a life, in which he had a few close friends. He liked the art, so he worked on it with heart without any apparent show-off (18). Netter died at the age of 85 on 17 September 1991 (16).
Description of the style of Netter
Frank Netter is considered as one of the best medical illustrators of the last century, and also known as “Michelangelo of Medicine”. With the help of art, Netter illustrated more than simple development of images of the human body. Actually, his work was a combination of clues and images, thereby giving a sense of a story. More important in the images was that the story was presented with high level of emotion and depth. For example, he drew a very detailed illustration of the panicked expressions of a woman having severe pains during an asthma attack. He also drew the image of a middle-aged man having a heart attack. He also had the ability to show a patient of rheumatologic disorder in such a way that the viewer would be able to know how a patient would try to get up from the chair, held his or her body, and stood up. With the help of these images, he was able to give the viewers a sense of something touching their heart (16).
Netter worked on illustrations without any personal reasons as he wanted to illustrate the medical information in a manner that would help the medical students, nurses, physicians, and other people related to medical profession. Before making the illustration, Netter used to research the topic, meet with physicians and experts, and develop some outlines in the form of broad strokes. After refining the outline, Netter and his team along with medical experts worked together to distribute the information or content over the images. After that information, preliminary sketches were made and reviewed by physicians and medical experts. If they gave some inputs, Netter modified the sketches according to the input. Medical illustrations made by Netter had some key points; the text was included in those illustrations and details were provided on some points. The text in the images was provided by physicians and medical experts, and gave information about the etiology of the disease and its prognosis. Each image came with nearly 650 words of complementary text. After the completion of images, every person, who was involved in the preparation of the image, looked at the image of assembled arts and legends (17).
During the preparation of images, Netter used to discuss every point openly and willingly with the experts. He was not a hostile kind of personality in getting the details and making the images accordingly. He tried to get as much detail as possible before translating those details into an image (17).
Most important part in the development of images was his ability to capture the emotions. He had a unique ability to know the students’ capability of learning a material by looking at it. He didn’t only considered students, but also worked on such real life illustrations that were able to get the attention of doctors (17). He used to say that we not working on machines, but these are human beings, who are living and breathing (Netter, and Gary E Friedlaender n.p.), therefore they need appropriate detail.
Contribution of the artwork to the time period
Artistic work of Netter spanned over half of the previous century (Washko 16). He was among those rare medical experts, who brought the medical subject to life with high level of clarity and precision. His work clarified the concepts of anatomy and pathology with a high level of humanity and empathy. In fact the portrayal of patients set him apart from his contemporaries (Netter, and Gary E Friedlaender n.p.).
During his time, several pharmaceutical companies were making important discoveries, thereby advancing the medical knowledge with huge speed. That advancement required better illustration to the medical community. In the start of his career, he developed medical illustrations for various companies such as Armour Laboratories, Pfizer & Co., and Winthrop Chemical Company, thereby helping them in reaching a larger number of people (Netter, and Gary E Friedlaender n.p.). With his popularity, he was also called by several organizations and institutions to illustrate the medical advancements such as joint replacement, organ transplantation, and first artificial heart (Quinnipiac University, qu.edu).
Among the world-renowned medical illustrations of Netter are
Clinical Symposia (1948 to present),
Atlas of Human Anatomy (1989), and
The Netter Collection of Medical Illustrations (from 1953 to 1993).
Clinical Symposia was a quarterly publication considering the diagnosis as well as treatment of a particular medical topic (Washko, 16). Over 200 monographs were published under this title (Netter, and Gary E Friedlaender n.p.). The Symposia are still found in print, but 14 titles are presented for sale by Icon Learning Systems, the company that got publishing rights to the collection of Netter from Novartis in July 2000 (Washko, 17).
Among the well-known works of Netter was The Ciba Collection of Medical Illustrations, which was a 13-volume set. The set is also known as the “green books” by many people in the field of medicine. Each volume of the set is related to an organ system, and for each system, he worked with physicians, medical experts, and leaders in their field. Therefore, it can be said that Netter not only worked hard in the medical illustration, but also in finding the medical experts, who can guide in some specific subjects (17).
Another most prolific work was the Atlas of Human Anatomy, which has been translated into 11 different languages and is highly recognized by medical students. According to Netter, Atlas of Human Anatomy was his best achievement in the field of medical illustration (16). It was also known as “Sistine Chapel,” by Netter, and became the best-selling atlas of the anatomy in the world (Netter, and Gary E Friedlaender n.p.).
Works Cited
Netter, Francine Mary, and Gary E Friedlaender. "Frank H. Netter Md and a Brief History of Medical Illustration." Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® 472.3 (2014): 812-19. Print.
Quinnipiac University. " About Frank H. Netter MD". School of Medicine. Quinnipiac University., n.d.. Web. 12 May. 2016 <https://www.qu.edu/academics/colleges-schools-and-departments/school-of-medicine/about-us/about-frank-h-netter-md/ >.
Washko, Rita M. "Frank H Netter, Medicine’s Michelangelo: An Editorial Perspective." Science 29.1 (2006): 17. Print.
