J. Marion Sims: Gynecologic Surgeon

The legacy of racism seen in Thom’s painting J. Marion Sims: Gynecologic Surgeon, continues to create an unfavorable dialogue on Dr. Sims unethical experiments and keeping it silent. Harriet Washington’s requested from Pfizer executives to use Thom’s painting for her book cover Medical Apartheid, but was denied after they read the requested chapter and outline discussing Dr. Sims unanesthetized surgeries on slave women. However, Mary Jenkins Schwartz, a white woman was granted permission to use the painting on her book cover, titled Birthing a Slave: Motherhood and the Antebellum South discussing the life a slave woman. Both books were published the same year.
Conclusion
In this essay, I defined that a historical painting is not pretty pictures of family portraits and landscapes, but can document events that spark the imagination, awaken emotion and capture truths about the black female body. I have highlighted two paintings by historical painters whose artwork offers a way of rethinking how the black
What will it take to see the image of the black woman as a human being? What is the moral responsibility of an artist? I find it difficult to answers these questions. As a black woman I aware that regardless of my artistic talent and education, the myths and stereotypes are seen first. As an artist, I feel the need to represent black women in a positive light, but is this only for my private portfolio? What does an artist do when they are commissioned to paint an image that could be racist and sexist? The strategies for how an artist positions him/herself narrating a historical event relies heavily on the dominant society’s viewpoint. The important aspect in contemporary black feminist literature is looking at the historical painting as another form of storytelling that contributes to the