This selection of the art of Dr. Frank H. Netter on neuroanatomy and neurophysiology is drawn
from the Atlas of Human Anatomy and Netter’s Atlas of Human Physiology. Viewing these pictures
again prompts reflection on Dr. Netter’s work and his roles as physician and artist.
Frank H. Netter was born in 1906 in New York City. He pursued his artistic muse at the Sorbonne,
the Art Student’s League, and the National Academy of Design before entering medical school at
New York University, where he received his M.D. degree in 1931. During his student years, Dr.
Netter’s notebook sketches attracted the attention of the medical faculty and other physicians, allowing him to augment his income by illustrating articles and textbooks. He continued illustrating as a
sideline after establishing a surgical practice in 1933, but ultimately opted to give up his practice in
favor of a full-time commitment to art. After service in the United States Army during the Second
World War, Dr. Netter began his long collaboration with the CIBA Pharmaceutical Company (now
Novartis Pharmaceuticals). This 45-year partnership resulted in the production of the extraordinary
collection of medical art so familiar to physicians and other medical professionals worldwide.
When Dr. Netter’s work is discussed, attention is focused primarily on Netter the artist and only
secondarily on Netter the physician. As a student of Dr. Netter’s work for more than forty years, I can
say that the true strength of a Netter illustration was always established well before brush was laid to
paper. In that respect each plate is more of an intellectual than an artistic or aesthetic exercise. It is
easy to appreciate the aesthetic qualities of Dr. Netter’s work, but to overlook its intellectual qualities is to miss the real strength and intent of the art. This intellectual process requires thorough understanding of the topic, as Dr. Netter wrote: “Strange as it may seem, the hardest part of making a medical picture is not the drawing at all. It is the planning, the conception, the determination of point of
view and the approach which will best clarify the subject which takes the most effort.”
Years before the inception of “the integrated curriculum,” Netter the physician realized that a
good medical illustration can include clinical information and physiologic functions as well as anatomy. In pursuit of this principle Dr. Netter often integrates pertinent basic and clinical science elements in his anatomic interpretations. Although he was chided for this heresy by a prominent
European anatomy professor, many generations of students training to be physicians rather than
anatomists have appreciated Dr. Netter’s concept.
The integration of physiology and clinical medicine with anatomy has led Dr. Netter to another,
more subtle, choice in his art. Many texts and atlases published during the period of Dr. Netter’s
career depict anatomy clearly based on cadaver specimens with renderings of shrunken and shriveled tissues and organs. Netter the physician chose to render “live” versions of these structures—not
shriveled, colorless, formaldehyde-soaked tissues, but plump, robust organs, glowing with color!
The value of Dr. Netter’s approach is clearly demonstrated by the plates in this selection.
