Henry Tonks most famous works are his 96 haunting and poignant “before and after” pastels, showing patients treated by Harold Gillies and others at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup during World War I.
The Tonks pastels are now held by the Royal College of Surgeons, in the same building as the BAPRAS Collection. They were created, not so much to document the progress of these soldier’s reconstructive journey, but to illustrate the physical and psychological consequences of their healing.
Tonks captured the extent of the soldier’s often horrifying and mutilating wounds. More impressively, he has also succeeded in depicting the pain and suffering these unfortunate individuals endured. The subjects’ eyes betray their fear before reconstruction. The ‘after’ images depict people whose eyes, tidier hair and smarter attire, project an air of increased self-confidence. This attests to the significant impact of reconstructive surgery not only on the physical appearance, but also upon the psychological well-being of an individual.
Diana “Dickie” Orpen, a student of Tonks summarises these remarkable images. “As a draughtsman, I was overwhelmed by the truly remarkable quality of these pastels - a difficult medium which can produce furry or even floury and sentimentally “soft edged” effects, but used here with enormous urgency directness and speed so that their vigour and veracity catch the very nature of the injuries and not only of the injuries themselves but also of the damage done to the person. I believe that the Sidcup drawings represent a really remarkable fusion of doctor and artist – it is almost an explosion of talent.”
[All Tonks' pastels are held by the Royal College of Surgeons, with whose permission they are reproduced here]