![The Surgeon [Dr. Alexander Bryan Johnson]](https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2016_36794/full/,1320/0/default.webp)
![The Surgeon [Dr. Alexander Bryan Johnson]](https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2016_36794/full/!220,220/0/default.webp)
Currently not on view
The Surgeon [Dr. Alexander Bryan Johnson],
ca. 1916
Clarence H. White, 1871–1925; born West Carlisle, OH; died Mexico City, Mexico; active Ohio and New York
x1983-1106
More Context
White was likely commissioned to take this portrait of Dr. Alexander Bryan Johnson, given its unusual location in an operating room. A celebrated surgeon and professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Johnson is posed in natural light and seems to pause over his patient. While White advertised that he would take portraits in people’s homes, this displacement of a view camera into an actual hospital comes closer to precedents established by Rembrandt and Thomas Eakins, in which heroic doctors are dramatically staged at work rather than posed in the streetwear of conventional portraits.
Information
Title
The Surgeon [Dr. Alexander Bryan Johnson]
Dates
ca. 1916
Maker
Medium
Platinum print
Dimensions
image: 23.2 x 17.6 cm (9 1/8 x 6 15/16 in.)
mount: 31.1 x 22.6 cm (12 1/4 x 8 7/8 in.)
sheet (sight): 24.4 x 18.6 cm (9 5/8 x 7 5/16 in.)
mat: 45.7 x 35.5 cm (18 x 14 in.)
frame: 51.4 × 41.3 × 3.2 cm (20 1/4 × 16 1/4 × 1 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
The Clarence H. White Collection, assembled and organized by Professor Clarence H. White Jr., and given in memory of Lewis F. White, Dr. Maynard P. White Sr., and Clarence H. White Jr., the sons of Clarence H. White Sr. and Jane Felix White
Object Number
x1983-1106
Place Made
North America, United States
Signatures
Signed on mount(1), recto, in pencil, below right side of photo: Clarence H. White
Inscription
Inscribed on mat, verso, in black ink, top right:
The Surgeon./
Platinum print./
Property of Mrs. Clarence H. White
Inscribed on mat, verso, in pencil, top left corner: No 6
Culture
Techniques
Subject
Created by Clarence H. White Sr., the artist; by descent to Clarence H. White Jr., on or after July 8, 1925 [1]; by descent to Clarence H. White Jr.’s widow, Ruth Royer White, 1978 [2]; bequest, to Princeton University Art Museum, 1983 [3].
Notes:
[1]. Possibly on the occasion of Clarence H. White Sr.’s death, as part of the Clarence H. White Collection.
[2]. On the occasion of Clarence H. White Jr.’s death.
[3]. Carried out by Ruth Royer White on behalf of Clarence H. White Jr.
Notes:
[1]. Possibly on the occasion of Clarence H. White Sr.’s death, as part of the Clarence H. White Collection.
[2]. On the occasion of Clarence H. White Jr.’s death.
[3]. Carried out by Ruth Royer White on behalf of Clarence H. White Jr.
