Title: Po Ashing (after surgery)
Secondary Title: Amputee
Description: oil on canvas 24 x 18 in., ca. 1837
Tumor: Amputation of the shoulder joint. Absorption of the os humeri and enlargement of the arm.
Case Number: 2512
Year: 1837
Modern Suggestion: According to the doctors consulted by the Gordon: Aneurysmal bone cyst.
Credit: Courtesy of The Gordon Museum
Dr. Peter Parker's Case History
"The patient perfectly recovered. In about one year after he married and by selling fruit with one hand, he is able to obtain a livelihood."
Additional Commentary
The only example of Parker's patients after the operation. The painting is also distinctive for Lam Qua's use of a landscape and the striking contrast of this image with the one painted prior to surgery. Po Ashing is posed standing full-length in a 3/4 profile looking rather steadily into the distance. The cleanly healed flap of his stump finds subtle echoes in the rocks near his feet but the viewer does not see any hint of amputation as a kind of mutilation. Rather the light behind the patient is radiant and golden, as if Lam Qua sought to visually suggest the success of the operation and the promise of a life restored to beauty and health. Compare this image with the frontal seated pose of the pre-operative portrait.

The Mysteries of Lam Qua: Medical Portraiture in China 1836 - 1855
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