A fine portrait of surgeon major Jean-Bernard Gimbrere ( 1704 – approx 1772 ) holding a book titled Fidele ( faithful ). Exquisite guilloche patterned gilded frame. Label at left bottom corner reads: 1750 Gimbrere Chirurgien Barbier a Auch. H 850mm, W 700mm
Jean-Bernard Gimbrere had a leading role in the brotherhood of surgeons in Auch, where he was surgeon-major and provost twice, in the second half of the 18th century. He also participated in the city council.
Excerpts from a 1782 medical journal: I represented to the patient that the only way to avoid the death which he felt was approaching was to make a puncture in the chest, to remove the pain which was suffocating him. My proposal frightened him at first; but he became more tractable, and he finally accepted it, after I had calmed him down from the pain of the operation, when he had formed a certain idea, and I had encouraged him by the hope of the relief which he must expect. I asked at the same time Mr. Gimbrere, his surgeon, and surgeon-major of the Auch regiment, to call some of his colleagues to help him in case of need. “Mr. Gimbrere plunged three-quarters of the way in with his usual dexterity: he had no sooner withdrawn the iron than the water gushed out through the cannula as far and with a movement as uniform as when this operation is performed for dropsy of the lower abdomen. As the water flowed, the action of respiration developed to the point that when about a pound had been drawn out, the patient exclaimed enthusiastically that he was cured.”
$5,800.00