Tonks the man
Henry Tonks was the first, and perhaps most significant, of the early systematic Illustrators of record associated with plastic surgery.
Harold Gillies first came across Tonks during 1916, early in his career at the Cambridge military hospital, Aldershot. About his time there, Tonks, an already known talent in the art world, writes "I am doing a number of pastel heads of wounded soldiers who had their faces knocked about. A very good surgeon called Gillies is undertaking what is known as the plastic surgery necessary. It is a chamber of horrors but I am quite content to draw them as it is excellent practice".
The records of Sidcup patients treated at the time are remarkably complete and were supplemented both by photographs and Tonks's drawings. During this time, he executed 69 now iconic pastel drawings and three pen and ink sketches of wounded soldiers whose faces had been severely damaged. These works represent a unique record of the pioneering surgery Gillies was undertaking, and are of great artistic merit - being considered some of Tonks finest work. Tonks told his pupil, Dickie Orpen before his death that " the drawings for Harold Gillies were the only ones he was 'not ashamed of'".
Tonks was in fact medically qualified and surgically trained. Born on 9 April 1862 in Solihull, the fifth of 11 children, and schooled at Bloxham, then Clifton College in Bristol, he became an in-pupil, or apprentice, at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton in January 1880. His pursuit of a medical career led him to the London Hospital in October 1881, where he qualified MRCS in January 1886. He was then house surgeon at the Royal Free and later earned his FRCS in June 1888.
Tonks had expressed an early interest in art throughout his time at the Sussex County Hospital and sought out art lessons from Losetti of Oxford Street. But it was during his tenure at the Royal Free, that he applied to join the Art School in Westminster, led by Mr. Fred Brown. He had already begun cleverly combining artistic pursuits with his knowledge of anatomy, often dedicating time to sketching cadavers in the post-mortem room.
When Brown assumed the position of Slade Professor of Fine Art at University College, he offered Tonks an assistant position at the school. This marked a significant turning point in Tonks' artistic career, and he soon became a distinguished member of a remarkable group of artists.
His tenure was cut short by the start of Word War 1 in 1914, when Tonks was aged 52. He quickly volunteered his services to a prisoners' camp hospital in Dorchester, then a hospital for convalescent officers. Throughout, he remained dedicated to the Slade.
By January 1915, Tonks was in Northern France working at a Red Cross clearing station. It was during this period that he created the preliminary sketches for his renowned "Saline Infusion" pastel. Back in England, in 1916 he volunteered for a temporary commission as lieutenant in the RAMC, which took him to Aldershot, and Gillies.
Having initially taken art lessons and intending to record all the new “plastic” operations he was himself performing, Gillies was alerted to the presence of Tonks by a friend. He immediately recognised the potential. Thus, Tonks who really did not have the disposition for surgery, resigned his commission at the end of 1916 and began working for Gillies. The two continued their association when the plastic surgery unit moved to Sidcup, Kent in 1917.
Tonks left Sidcup in June 1918, first being attached to a Guards Division at Bercelaire, then in 1919 to the British expeditionary force in Russia as a war artist. before assisting the Russians in Archangel.
After the war, Tonks succeeded Frederick Brown as the Slade Professor of Fine Art from 1918 to 1930 when he decided to retire. He lived out his remaining years peacefully, passing away on 8 January 1937, following a thrombosis. His legacy endures through his remarkable contributions to both the medical and artistic realms.
Contributor: Maria Revenco