Anatomical Drawing of a Human Skeleton

Anatomical Drawing of a human skeleton signed: John Linnell. For a Students Ticket. February 25th 1840'. 39 numbered bones with inked key - additional pencil key and mss notes. Pen and brown/black ink hightened with white, on cream/buff paper. 700x430mm.

Attributed to John Linnell (1792-1882), a British portrait and landscape artist, this ink and pencil drawing shows the human skeleton. It is unclear whether the sketch is by Linnell or a student composition submitted as part of an examination. A pencil note at the bottom of the 700 mm-tall drawing comments that the names of the bones in the sketch are “few and bad”. The close relationship between art and anatomy began in the Renaissance, when artists and anatomists worked closely together to produce detailed anatomical drawings for medical textbooks, and established artistic and aesthetic conventions.