| Description: |
Portrait of Joseph Erlanger, M.D., by Wyndham Lewis, 1944. Oil on canvas, framed, total dimensions 42 x 34 inches. A brass plaque on the base of the frame reads: “JOSEPH ERLANGER.” Erlanger was professor and head of physiology, 1910-1946. The portrait commemorates the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Erlanger (along with Herbert S. Gasser) in 1944 and was the gift of contributors to the Joseph Erlanger portrait fund. Circumstances leading to the choice of Lewis to paint the work are related in a biography of the artist by Jeffrey Meyers, The Enemy: A Biography of Wyndham Lewis (London, 1980). |
