[TAUSSIG, HELEN BROOKE. 1898-1986.]


BAUERNSCHMIDT, PATRIC. 1912-1985. Dr. Helen Taussig. Painting, oil on board, 1982, 18 x 14 inches (457 x 357 mm), signed in pencil at lower left, and marked "Prelim Sketch — 5/82, Dr. Helen Taussig, Johns Hopkins School of Med, Baltimore, Maryland." Pediatric cardiologist Mary Ellen Engel arranged for Patric Bauernschmidt to paint a portrait of her mentor Helen B. Taussig for the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, after Jamie Wyeth's formal portrait of Taussig was unveiled at Hopkins in 1964 to a negative reception. Wyeth was just seventeen years old when he undertook Taussig's portrait, and it ws his first commissioned portrait. Taussig was present for the unveiling of a final version of Bauernschmidt's portrait of her on her 84th birthday in May 1982. Patric Bauernschmidt worked primarily as a medical illulstrator. She studied at the Memphis Art Institute, the University of Tennessee Medical School, the University of Maryland Medical School, and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Among other positions, she was Director of Art for the Operative Surgery Department at the University of Maryland, and Medical Illustrator at Doctors Hospital in Washington, DC.