"The Medical Michelangelo."

Frank H. Netter, MD

Frank Henry Netter was born in 1906, and grew up wanting to be an artist. In high school, he obtained a scholarship to study at the National Academy of Design, doing so at night while continuing high school. After further studying at the Art Students League of New York and with private teachers, he began a commercial art career, quickly achieving success and doing work for the Saturday Evening Post and The New York Times.

The young Netter had already established himself as a successful commercial artist in the 1920's when, at the advise of his parents, he changed careers. "I gave up art at the urging of my family," he said.

In order to find a more "dependable" career, Frank Netter entered New York University Medical School. But even as he pursued his training as a surgeon, Netter found that it was easier for him to take notes in pictures than in words.

Soon faculty members recognized his artistic talents, and Netter began to pay for part of his medical education by illustrating lectures and textbooks.

Starting out as a young physician during the Depression, Dr. Netter found that there was more interest in his medical artwork than his surgical capabilities.

"I thought I could do drawings until I had my practice on its feet," he recalled, "but the demand for my pictures grew much faster than the demand for my surgery.

The Beginning of a career

In 1938, the CIBA Pharmaceutical Company commissioned a small work from him, a fold-up illustration of a heart to promote the sale of digitalis. This proved hugely popular with physicians and a reprint without the advertising copy was even more popular

Following the success of these endeavors, Netter was asked to illustrate a series of atlases that became his life's work. They are a group of volumes individually devoted to each organ system, which cover human anatomy, embryology, physiology, pathology, and pertinent clinical features of the diseases arising in each system.

Autonomic Nerves and Ganglia of the Abdomen

Dr. Netter's beautifully rendered volumes are now to be found in every medical school library in the country as well as in many doctors' offices around the world, and his work has helped to educate and enlighten generations of doctors.

Wrist and Hand: Superficial Dorsal Dissection

Subdural Hematoma

Clarity in illustration was his primary and ultimate goal; no matter how beautifully painted, a picture had little value to him if it did not make clear a medical point.

Vertebral Ligaments

Having gone through medical school himself, Netter knew the challenges that medical students experienced and he figured out how he could use his skills to teach other students. He used his artistic talents and techniques to clarify anatomical structures and to make the anatomy more appealing to look at rather than morbid or gruesome.

Arteries to the Brain and Meninges

Netter produced nearly 4,000 illustrations, which have been included in countless publications.

In 1988, The New York Times called Netter " an artist who has probably contributed more to medical education than most of the world's anatomy professor's taken together."

Scuba Diving, III: BarotraumaOne hazard of a diver’s too-swift return to the water’s

surface is pulmonary barotrauma (or ‘lung burst’),

where the alveoli expand until they rupture.

Woman with DermatosisThe editorial accompanying this 1951 image stated that with the inclusion of the camera Netter was “pay[ing] tribute to the rival art of color photography.” The dermatosis (skin disease) depicted is probably atopic dermatitis, an inflammation of the skin also known as eczema, caused by low levels of the protein cytokine in the immune system.

Dr. Netter also developed a variety of unusual medical art projects including building the seven-foot "transparent woman" for the San Francisco Golden Gate Exposition.

Dr. Netter continued to produce illustrations well into his eighties. Though he passed in 1991 his work continues to educate medical professionals. His anatomical drawings are the benchmark by which all other medical art is measured and judged.