Dental Care in Modern Art (1914-2014)
Dental Care in Modern Art (1914-2014)
Dental Care in Modern Art (1914-2014)
In brief
Provides examples of how twentieth century Provides understanding of how dental developments Enhances knowledge of ‘dentistry and art’ and
artists depicted ‘dentists in action’. and art history trends influenced figurative dental humanities.
representations of dentists and patients.
Background Representations of ‘dentists in action’ in modern art have never been systematically researched. This paper
surveys and analyses these portrayals for the first time. Methods Relevant paintings, prints, sculptures, and installations
were identified by means of keyword searches in search engines, OPACs and picture libraries as well as handsearch. Results
Between 1914 and 2014 more than 75 works of art with dental treatment as a motif appeared across the globe. Virtually every
modern style from post-impressionism to ‘crossover art’ are represented, including world famous artists such as Dubuffet or
Dalí. Syringes, Doriot’s transmissions and contra-angle handpieces are worked into an iconographic code. In contrast, elements
of an increasing hygiene consciousness (gloves, face masks and protective glasses) are integrated only fragmentarily. The
dentist-patient relationship is predominantly portrayed professionally and realistically and the stereotype of the male dentist
dominates. Discussion For almost a century it has been argued that dentists in action had largely disappeared from artistic
production after 1900. The results presented here force a revision of this idea and encourage the further discovery of pictorial
sources. Only in this way can the fascinating theme of ‘dentistry in art’ become an attractive part of dental humanities.
Background innovations and art historical trends have on the is depicted. We have excluded portraits as
iconography of the resulting productions? Did well as genres such as caricature, comics and
‘No artist today would consider portraying the feminisation of dentistry have any effect? photography. Despite considerable effort over
a dentist in their office […] The interest of many years of research, we cannot exclude the
painters in our profession is minimal.’1 This Material and methods possibility that there are artworks missing.
finding from a recent study echoes the conclu-
sions of numerous older surveys of ‘dentistry A systematic keyword search engine inquiry Results
and art’2–10 which unanimously argue that the (google.com, WorldCat.org), online data banks
link between dental practice and its figurative (bda.org/library, zm-online.de, artprice.com) Based on these criteria, 79 images by 70 artists
representation died in the twentieth century. Is and image archives (prometheus-bildarchiv. from a total of 22 countries have been included
it really true that a medical discipline based on de, https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookview- in this study. Most of these images are presented
anaesthetisation, offering minimally invasive er?PID=nlm:nlmuid-0114074-bk) produced here for the first time to the dental profession.
treatment strategies, and guided by prevention an initial overview of relevant works. To this The period under investigation (1914–2014)
is really no longer an artistic subject? was added a number of artefacts from more has been divided into five 20-year periods.
This paper argues that it is not. We shall first recent publications.11–13 However, at least a One representative image has been chosen
catalogue all those works of modern art which quarter of the materials found were not listed from each period and the rest of the images are
portray dental treatment and analyse the back- in electronic or printed media. These works presented in tabular form. Summaries of art
ground of dentistry and art history. The main were found via tips from colleagues, collec- history trends and dental developments place
questions addressed will include: How many of tors, art dealers and art historians and were the presented artwork in a larger cultural and
such works can be identified? Which artists took acquired as a digital copy. After arranging this scientific-historical context.
this motif up? What kind of effects did technical data chronologically, each item was carefully
described and interpreted. Of particular 1914–1933: spirit of optimism in
interest were representations of the dentist-pa- dentistry and art
1
Institute for the History of Medicine and Medical Ethics,
University Hospital Cologne, Germany. tient relationship, the location of treatment, the The First World War marks a turning point in art
*Correspondence: Prof. Dr. med. Axel Karenberg kind of therapy as well as technical innovations history. Never before did so many new concepts
Email: ajg02@uni-koeln.de
and hygienic aspects. and directions in art emerge in such a short
Refereed Paper. Accepted 13 September 2017 This overview is limited to artwork in period of time. Never had such a multiplicity
DOI: 10.1038/sj.bdj.2017.998
which a dental treatment (in the widest sense) of styles existed simultaneously. This diversity is
1-7 1929 Sir John Lavery ‘The Dentist (Conrad Ackner and His Patient)’
1934–1953: wartime
1-8 1929 Gaston-Louis Roux [The Tooth Ripper] Social, artistic and scientific developments
1-9 1930 Edouard Tytgat [The Dentist] during these two decades were significantly
impacted by the second great, catastrophic war
1-10 1930 Ottohans Beier ‘Dr med. dent. Alfred Thielmann’
of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, a few
1-11 1930? Albert Guillaume ‘At the Dentist’
art styles managed to continue to develop. In
1-12 n.d. Istvan Drahos ‘Dr Sigmund Leicht’ Hitler’s Germany, however, and later in those
n.d. = no date areas occupied by Germany, artists in search
[ ] Original titles in foreign languages have been translated into English
of new forms of expression were persecuted
and forced to emigrate. Many sought refuge
also reflected in scenes of dental treatment in the focused. He is not wearing a mask or gloves, and in the USA and carried the European avant-
years 1914 to 1933 (Table 1): postimpressionism whether he is wearing a gown is not clear. The garde with them across the Atlantic. We should
(1–1), realism (1–7) and cubist abstraction (1–8) viewer of this image, like the patient, perceives like to emphasise two defining tendencies of
are represented along with ‘peinture naive’ (1–9) little of the actual treatment. Their view is international art. First, the advent of everyday
as are throwbacks to traditional imagery (1–3, instead of an American urban skyline. Yet the experience in art: early pop-art brought an end
1–5, 1–11). Despite all their differences, most of practitioner’s furrowed brow and tensed mas- to the demand for a distinctive work of art.19
the representations have something in common: ticatory muscles suggest a certain effort. One Second, the return of the beautiful in the ugly:
in comparison to pre-modern painting, treatment presumes he is holding a mirror and a dental this principle is exemplified in the material
is no longer staged in the open air and with a collected here (Table 2) by two works by the
public audience, but rather in the intimate setting French artist Jean Dubuffet entitled ‘Dentiste’
of a dental practice. Furthermore, these innova- (2–5,2–6). Crude and non-conformist scenes,
tive artworks reproduce the radical changes the very much in the spirit of ‘art brut’ (‘outsider
decades after 1900 brought to everyday academic art’), which is to be understood as the opposite
dentistry: the confident use of local anaesthet- of traditional ‘art culturel’.20
ics; improved diagnostic possibilities including World War II certainly caused a stagnation
intraoral X-rays; scientifically-established caries in the development of dentistry with essential
research with new prophylactic options; the tran- innovations limited principally to dental
sition from extraction to tooth preservation.14,15 technology with new synthetic materials and
The most well-known dental scenes from this impression materials. Two other phenomena
period include Vuillard’s ‘Dr. Viau’ (1914)16, from this time deserve our attention: the first
Board’s ‘The First Use of Ether in Dental Surgery’ artistic representation of dental treatment by a
(1920), and Lavery’s ‘The Dentist’ (1929), which dentist in the twentieth century (2–7) and the
includes the depiction of an X-ray machine.17 first known image of a female dentist together
Meissner’s 1927 woodcut ‘From Dentist’s with patients (2–8). No image demonstrates
Chair’ (1–6) represents the modernism of more vividly the possibilities and limits of
dentistry in the art of this time (Fig. 1). The dentistry in wartime than ‘16th US Medical
American artist produced a rare example of Regiment: Field Dental Service Operating
dental treatment from the patient’s perspective.18 During an Attack’ by Leslie Cole from 1942
Other than the Doriot’s transmission, which (2–3). This British artist served as an official
replaced the foot-operated dental drill after war painter during the Second World War,21
1893, there is little that indicates the interior Fig. 1 Leo John Meissner, ‘From Dentist’s though it was as a landscape painter that he
of a dental office. What is striking here are the Chair’, 1927. Reproduced with permission made his name.22
from Philadelphia Museum of Art, Accession
oversized hands of the dentist which occupy The work presented here (Fig. 2) shows
number 1944–8–1. Gift of an anonymous
almost the entire lower half of the image. We see donor, 1944 dental practice under wartime conditions in
his face in the upper right, which is friendly and a converted attic. In the middle of the image
Discussion and conclusions Access to this heretofore unappreciated reverberates through these artworks –
phenomenon is, however, hampered by meth- albeit with some time lag and by no means
From Proskauer’s famous ‘Iconographia odont- odological problems. Because artwork of a par- in every case. Dental chairs, Doriot’s
ologica’28 to the most recent publications1,17 ticular theme is only systematically searchable transmissions, syringes, X-ray tubes and
research into the theme of ‘dentistry in art’ has within narrow limits, the material presented contra-angle handpieces all belong to the
been dominated by a prejudice; in pre-modern here is as incomplete as it is heterogeneous. For distinctive ‘iconographic code’ of the dental
epochs we find the anguished face of a patient this reason the following conclusions should profession in the twentieth and twenty-first
and their fear of the tooth extraction as the be understood as heuristic hypotheses which centuries.29 Yet more than ten modern
most favoured pictorial object. Since 1900, require validation: images still include a dental forceps
however, ‘dentists in action’ are said to have 1. The motif of dental treatment appears 4. Less often do we find the transition to a
disappeared from artistic production. As the in virtually every trend and style of hygiene consciousness expressed. In fewer
results here show, artistic representations of modern art, from post-impressionism to than ten representations do we find both
dentists and their patients have not at all dis- twenty-first century installations gloves and face masks
appeared. Quite the opposite is true; the motif 2. Most oil paintings, watercolours, prints, 5. Excepting two female precursors, female
of dental treatment was not only a continuing collages and sculptures come from less well- dentists only appear as a motif after 1990.
presence throughout the twentieth century, known artists. Yet even famous painters There are in total only three depictions of
but has appeared even more prominently in such as Vuillard, Lavery, Cole, Dubuffet them in contemporary art and thus their
contemporary art (see Tables 4 and 5). One is and Dalí have chosen this subject number remains extremely small. This
almost tempted to speak of an ‘odontalisation’ 3. Less surprising is that progress in dental failure to accurately represent the femini-
of the contemporary art scene. medicine made over the last century sation of the profession can be similarly
found in ‘dentistry in film’30 and demands
Table 4 Works of art depicting dentists in action (1974–1993) further research
6. Most of the depictions of the dentist-patient
No. Date Artist Title
relationship are sober, business-like and
4-1 1974 Norman Rockwell ‘The Expected and the Unexpected’ professional (see Figures 1, 3, 5). Yet there
4-2 1980 Leonid Stschetnew [Bookplate Axel Leier] are also patients who show pain, fear or a
negative reaction to treatment
4-3 1980 Ronald Wicks ‘Professional Hands’
7. No artist to date has paid any attention
4-4 1980 Raymond Poulet [The Dentist at Work] to the achievements of implantology, the
surgical microscope, or developments
4-5 1980 Salvador Dali í [The Light of Healing/The Dentist]
in orthodontics.
4-6 ca. 1980 Yuval Mahler ‘Drilling Baby’
4-22 n.d. Jean Duranel [The Dentist] Fig. 4 Kostas Lekakis, ‘Dental Relationship’,
1990. Reproduced with permission from
n.d. = no date
[ ] Original titles in foreign languages have been translated into English Kostas Lekakis
5-9 2007 Francis Moreeuw [Scene of ordinary life: AT THE DENTIST] Fig. 5 Marjolein Bresser, ‘De Tandarts’,
2010. Reproduced with permission from
5-10 2008 Domingo Garcia Criado [Dentist]
Marjolein Bresser
5-11 2009 Wu Shidao [Village Dentist]
5-12 2009 Victor Molev ‘Dentist’ 7. Baron A, Baron P. L’art dentaire à travers la peinture. Paris:
ACR, 1986.
5-13 2009 David Lebel ‘Dentist’ 8. Nechwatal N. Zahnweh. Die Zahnheilkunde in der Dich-
tung. Wiesbaden: Wittal, 1992.
5-14 2010 Lenz Geerk [Dentist] 9. Killer P. Zahnheilkunde in der Kunst. Leid, Freude und
Humor – dargestellt auf Bildern, Dokumenten und
5-15 2010 Luis Antonio Godoy Choc [The Dentist] Objekten aus der Sammlung von Dr. med. dent. Hans Beat
Herzog. Olten: Kunstmuseum, 1999.
5-16 2010 Marjolein Bresser [The Dentist] 10. Curtis E. Hand to mouth. Essays on the art of dentistry.
Chicago: Quintessence, 2002.
5-17 2011 Benjamin Nyari ‘Fear from the Dentist’ 11. Katz P, Katz A. Dentistry in art. Los Angeles: Quintes-
sence, 2011.
5-18 2011 Christopher Gordon Johnson ‘Your Child’s First Trip to the Dentist’ 12. Böhme H, Slominski B (eds). Das Orale. Die Mundhöhle in
Kulturgeschichte und Zahnmedizin. München: Fink, 2013.
5-19 2012 Sally Parnis ‘Dentist’ 13. Böhme H, Kordaβ B, Slominski B (eds). Das Dentale.
Faszination des oralen Systems in Wissenschaft und Kultur.
5-20 2013 Gabrielle Guenther ‘The Dirty South Dentist’ Berlin: Quintessenz, 2015.
14. Ring M. Dentistry. An illustrated history. Oxford: Blackwell
5-21 2013 Gia Adomavicius ‘Robot Dentist’ Scientific, 1985.
15. Hoffmann-Axthelm W. Die Geschichte der Zahnheilkunde.
5-22 n.d. Longo Cerva ‘The Italian Dentist’ 2nd edition. Berlin: Quintessenz, 1985.
16. Cogeval G. Vuillard. Yale: University Press, 2003.
5-23 n.d. Magdalena Giesek ‘The Dentist’ 17. McConkey K. Sir John Lavery’s ‘The Dentist (Conrad
Ackner and his Patient)’. Br Dent J 2011; 210: 81–85.
5-24 n.d. Udo Lindenberg [Don’t Panic – It'll Be Over Soon] 18. Helfand W H. Crowning achievements. Dentistry in the
Ars Medica Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
‘Patient Lying on a Dentist Chair, Waiting for the
5-25 n.d. Chris Andrews 1999. Philadelphia: Museum of Art, 1999.
Dentist’ 19. Schneede U M. Die Geschichte der Kunst im 20. Jahrhun-
dert. Von den Avantgarden bis zur Gegenwart. München:
5-26 n.d. Eddy Bosseno ‘Surgery’
Beck, 2010.
n.d. = no date 20. Lutz V. Wenn Kunst behindert wird. Bielefeld: transcript,
[ ] Original titles in foreign languages have been translated into English 2012.
21. Brandon L. Art and war. London: Tauris, 2007.
22. Rose A. British watercolours and drawings from Rowlandson
Artwork that portrays dentists and their the results. This would produce a rewarding to Riley. Edinburgh: Royal Scottish Academy, 1982.
23. Naval History and Heritage Command. Women in
patients can be seen as an important picture contribution to the medical cultural history of Uniform. Available at https://www.history.navy.mil/
library for the history of everyday life. Within the last century. our-collections/art/exhibits/communities/women-in-uni-
form.html (accessed November 2016).
fixed limits, they testify to social and technical 24. Modarresi-Tehrani A. Die Geschichte der Hygiene in der
Acknowledgements
developments, emotional reactions, and zahnärztlichen Praxis seit Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges.
David D. Lee assisted with the preparation of University of Würzburg: School of Dentistry, Thesis
interpersonal relationships. Last but not least, this paper. 2000.
artistic representations and interpretations 25. Kostas Art Jewelry. Dental Relationship. Available at
1. Gausset M. De l’antiquité au XXème siècle. Regard sur la http://www.kostasartjewelry.com/dental-relationship.
echo the public appreciation (or contempt) dentisterie à travers l’iconographie picturale et graphique. html (accessed December 2016).
for the dental profession; conversely, they University of Lyons: School of Dentistry, Thesis, 2011. 26. Bresser M. Personal communication, 2014.
2. Pindborg J J, Marvitz L.The dentist in art. London: George 27. Hardie J. AIDS and its significance to dentistry. JCDA
influence its image.
Proffer Ltd., 1961. 1983; 49: 565–568.
The repercussions of dentistry in literature, 3. Proskauer C, Witt F H. Pictorial history of dentistry 28. Proskauer C. Iconographia odontologica. Berlin: Meusser,
film and art constitute an important part of the [Bildgeschichte der Zahnheilkunde]. Köln: DuMont 1926.
Schauberg, 1962. 29. Gorin V, Barras V, Delessert T. Darstellung des Zahnmed-
‘dental humanities’. In this regard this paper is 4. Schadewaldt H. Kunst und Medizin. Köln: Dumont, 1971. iziners in der zeitgenössischen Ikonografie. Swiss Dent J
designed as an impulse to more intensely study 5. Dechaume M, Huard P. Histoire illustrée de l’art dentaire. 2011; 121: 1077–1083.
Paris: Dacosta, 1977. 30. Petzke A. Zelluloid-Zahnärzte. Die Darstellung eines
the recent history of this medical discipline in 6. Lässig H E, Müller R A. Die Zahnheilkunde in Kunst-und Berufsstandes im deutschen Kinofilm. University of
interdisciplinary cooperation and to connect Kulturgeschichte. Köln: Dumont, 1983. Cologne: Dental School, Thesis 2009.