Mr Joseph Maclise and the Epistemology of the Anatomical Closet

This article takes up the case of Joseph Maclise (1815–1891), a talented and truculent surgeon, anatomist, medical illustrator mid-nineteenth-century Britain. left behind corpus brilliant, idiosyncratic anatomical images, opinionated commentaries, but almost no evidence his social interactions or affective relations. Homoerotic desire was heavily policed in Maclise’s time. Given conditions under which archive created (or suppressed, lost, shamed into reticence), we can never know with certainty what he intended felt, readers received—but do have rich evidentiary base visual materials. Using narrative history, close readings images texts, detailed comparisons other illustrated anatomies, open-ended theoretical methodological approaches (a mash-up queer theory, Foucault, gaze genre analysis, contextualization)—an argument is joined: book be closet space. drawings, ostensibly designed to contribute improvement knowledge, practice, show good-looking young men cadaveric bodies various states dissection. Penises, testicles, anuses, faces, sensuous hands on skin are crisply rendered illusionistic perspective, highly cultivated aestheticism—often without any relevance topic discussed—and little attention paid female body. In historical context, from our twenty-first-century vantage point, hypothesis homoerotic investment leads productive interpretations. poses more questions than answers comes rest this: it plausible meaningful take illustrations, figures depicted therein, as objects desire.