Portrait of Max Broedel, Professor of Art as Applied to Medicine, Johns Hopkins University

Doris Ulmann and Dr. Charles Jaeger (1875-1942) were married early in the second decade of this century. As he was a surgeon on the faculty of Columbia University Medical School, their circle of friends no doubt included many people in the medical profession (see also: 87.XM.89.93). These associations and Ulmann's increasing interest in portraiture probably led her to compile her first publication, a portfolio of twenty-four portraits entitled The Faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University (1919). This was followed by a second collection of photogravures, A Book of Portraits of the Medical Faculty of The Johns Hopkins University (1922). The latter, appearing under Ulmann's maiden name, includes an image of the art professor Max Broedel (1870-1941) in a white smock posed next to one of his drawings depicting a surgeon in the midst of an operation. The artist holds drawing pencils as if at work, but directs his serious gaze at the photographer instead of his medical subject. In contrast, the Getty print shows Broedel in a more relaxed pose. Although Ulmann asserts in the introduction to her 1922 book that sitters were more likely to take natural attitudes with "less tendency to assume an unconscious photographic expression" if represented in familiar surroundings, this picture was probably made in her studio. A subtle silk backdrop replaces the more usual lab or office setting.

Judith Keller. Doris Ulmann, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996), 22. ©1996, J. Paul Getty Trust.