The Gross Clinic, or, The Clinic of Dr. Gross, is an 1875 painting by American artist Thomas Eakins. It is oil on canvas and measures 8 feet by 6.5 feet (200 cm). Dr. Gross, dressed in a black frock coat, lectures a group of Jefferson Medical College students. Included among the group is a self-portrait of Eakins, who is seated to the right of the tunnel railing, sketching or writing. Seen over Dr. Gross's right shoulder is the clinic clerk, Dr. Franklin West, taking notes on the operation. Eakins's signature is painted into the painting, on the front of the surgical table. Samuel David Gross (July 8, 1805 - May 6, 1884) was an American academic trauma surgeon. In 1839, Gross published Elements of Pathological Anatomy, the first systematic treatise on the subject in the United States. Gross spent time with human and animal dissection and was interested in research on blood coagulation, gastric and renal excretion, animal inoculation of smallpox, and |