Enythema multiforme in woman with gangrenous leg: detail of hands showing inflamed red skin nodules due to capillary congestion. Watercolour by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1950.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1950.

1 painting : watercolour, with gouache ; sheet 23 x 24.6 cm

Barbara Evelyn Nicholson (1906 – 1978) trained at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1923. She began her artistic career as a medical illustrator and was a founder member of the Medical Artists Association, where she is recorded as serving on an exhibition committee in October 1949. By 1951, she had illustrated G.F. Gibberd, A short textbook of midwifery (2nd ed., London: J. & A. Churchill, 1941) and Philip Wiles, Essentials of orthopaedics (London: J. & A. Churchill, 1949). The Medical Artists Association records last list her, in 1951. In the 1950s her focus moved to botanical subjects and from the late 1950s – 1970s she was a prolific botanical illustrator.

<...> 6.3.50, erythema multiforme Lettering inscribed in pencil, with note in black ink on reverse asking for return to Miss B E Nicholson, with her address in Dorset Bears number: 190/1950

This item is restricted. You will need to complete a Restricted Access form agreeing to anonymise personal data before you will be allowed to view this item. Please see our Access Policy for more details. Restricted until: 01/01/2035 Restricted

The watercolours and pen and ink drawings held by Wellcome Collection were painted by Barbara Nicholson at Ashford Hospital, Ashford, Middlesex, between 1946 and 1951, at the request of the surgeon Norman Matheson.

Wellcome Collection 33551i