Thanks! I remember reading this article when it first appeared - well worth reading, and re-reading. On this subject let me recommend the novel The Crimson Portrait by Jody Shields, which tells the story of a British woman who, after her husband's death, fulfills her promise to make their estate an army hospital. It becomes the hospital for soldiers with severely disfigured faces.
The novel weaves Catherine's personal story of loss and recovery with that of surgeon Dr McCleary and sketch artist and painter Anna Coleman, who seem inspired by Francis Derwent Wood and Anna Coleman Watts, and who undertake reconstruction of the face of a soldier who reminds Catherine of her late husband. Shields write of McCleary:
"He wished for a perfection of skin for his patients. He imagined squares of skin the size of rose petals that would miraculously float down over the faces of the wounded men, and cover their wounds--thick, silent and painless as a snowfall."
Thanks! I remember reading this article when it first appeared - well worth reading, and re-reading. On this subject let me recommend the novel The Crimson Portrait by Jody Shields, which tells the story of a British woman who, after her husband's death, fulfills her promise to make their estate an army hospital. It becomes the hospital for soldiers with severely disfigured faces.
ReplyDeleteThe novel weaves Catherine's personal story of loss and recovery with that of surgeon Dr McCleary and sketch artist and painter Anna Coleman, who seem inspired by Francis Derwent Wood and Anna Coleman Watts, and who undertake reconstruction of the face of a soldier who reminds Catherine of her late husband. Shields write of McCleary:
"He wished for a perfection of skin for his patients. He imagined squares of skin the size of rose petals that would miraculously float down over the faces of the wounded men, and cover their wounds--thick, silent and painless as a snowfall."
http://www.amazon.com/Crimson-Portrait-Novel-Jody-Shields/dp/0316067180/