Preparation

This painting of a surgeon preparing for an operation is one of a series produced between 1948 and 1949. The artist had become friends with Norman Capener, an orthopedic surgeon based in Exeter, after one of her children had required surgery. He invited her to watch an operation and she was allowed to make drawings in operating theatres at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital in Exeter, the National Orthopedic Hospital and the London Clinic. Preparation was probably produced in her studio from memory.