I am grateful for the assistance from all the departments mentioned above, most notably Richard Keeler and Wendy Franks, whose knowledge of the history of ophthalmic artists and ophthalmology has been invaluable.
With the assistance of the archives team at the Wellcome Collection I discovered seminal retinal paintings in numerous ophthalmic atlases that are held in their collection, uncovering the paintings that first illustrated this new unexplored world. I have been in contact with Judith Wright, Senior Archivist at Boots UK, and discovered the story behind the drawing department at Theodore Hamblin where Tarrant began his career. I was curious to find out more about the artists involved in this movement, its history, and specifically the paintings and the person behind the name.įor the purpose of this paper, I have viewed Tarrant’s original paintings at the Institute of Ophthalmology and met Richard Keeler, Honorary Archivist for the Moorfields (Alumni) Association located in the joint library at the Institute of Ophthalmology.
As I later discovered, this name is widely known throughout the field of ophthalmology and his work is highly revered. These feature a single name, Tarrant, in the bottom corner of the paintings. As well as the conventional ophthalmic photographs and scans, this latest edition contains 33 paintings of the retina.
My interest in paintings of the retina began while working with John Salmon on the tenth edition of Kanski’s Clinical Ophthalmology. The early explorers of this new world documented the retinal landscapes, unlocking its secrets equipped with a paintbrush and an ophthalmoscope.
When Albrecht von Graefe first examined the eye using Hermann von Helmholtz’s ophthalmoscope he exclaimed ‘Helmholtz has discovered for us a new world’.
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