Sir John Lavery's The Dentist (Conrad Ackner and his Patient).
The rise of the dental profession coinciding with the invention and rapid spread of photography means that there are very few paintings of dentists in action. The present article describes Sir John Lavery's unusual depiction of The Dentist (Conrad Ackner and his Patient) in which the conventions of contemporary society portraiture are set aside. The resulting canvas has much to tell us about the up-to-date equipment used in a surgery of the late twenties by a successful practitioner who pioneered the use of X-rays.
Northumbria University, Lipman Building, Sandyford Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST. kenneth_mcconkey@btopenworld.com
K
K
McConkey
D003815:Dentists / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history*; D011173:Portraits as Topic / Q000266:history; D006113:United Kingdom