The Paris Salon des Médecins (1909–1939): Amateur Art and Professional Culture

Abstract

This article presents the initial results of a research project on the history of physician-artists in the twentieth century, at the intersection between the history of amateur art and the history of the medical profession. In 1909, the Paris “Salon des médecins” (Physicians’ Salon) was created, following in the footsteps of other so-called “corporative” amateur art exhibitions dedicated to particular professional groups. The Salon’s activities also played a role in debates about the physician’s professional identity, especially regarding the role of the humanities and the arts in medical training and practice. This article retraces the history of the Salon des médecins, from its inception through to the rise of “medical humanism” in 1930s France. After outlining the context in which the Salon was founded, the article firstly analyses the social group constituted by the exhibitors, examining, on the one hand, its representativeness within the field of health professionals, and on the other, its representations of the physician-artist as the new face of the humanist doctor. The article also explores the individual case of Raimond Sabouraud, examining the ways in which he embodied the ideal of the physician-artist and the room for manoeuvre that this ideal allowed.