Accompanied by his father, Tarrant returned to the labour exchange and found a vacancy at Theodore Hamblin Ltd, Dispensing Opticians, located at 15 Wigmore Street, London. As a young child Tarrant was fascinated with microscopes and optics in general and would construct rudimentary telescopes out of cardboard. After an unsuccessful visit to the labour exchange (the forerunner of the modern jobcentre) with his father he focused his attention away from the arts to his other interest which was optics. Hand painted tins were highly popular at this time and many homes had large collections. He was specifically interested in creating illustrations for the Metal Box Company. When he left school in 1944 he hoped to find a job where he could utilise his artistry. It was evident at an early age that Tarrant had inherited his father’s artistic abilities as he showed a proficiency for drawing. In his spare time he used these artistic skills to generate extra income as a sign writer for local shops and businesses. His father worked as a station master for the London Underground and was also a gifted artist, creating paintings using oil and watercolour. Tarrant was born in 1930 in Kings College Hospital, London, and was brought up in Newington Causeway close to the Elephant and Castle. I have been fortunate to speak to the artist, Mr Tarrant, on many occasions and talk to him about his life and discover how he became arguably the most prolific and well-known of ophthalmic artists. I am grateful for the assistance from all the departments mentioned above, most notably Richard Keeler and Wendy Franks, whose knowledge of the history of ophthalmic artists and ophthalmology has been invaluable. With the assistance of the archives team at the Wellcome Collection I discovered seminal retinal paintings in numerous ophthalmic atlases that are held in their collection, uncovering the paintings that first illustrated this new unexplored world. I have been in contact with Judith Wright, Senior Archivist at Boots UK, and discovered the story behind the drawing department at Theodore Hamblin where Tarrant began his career. I was curious to find out more about the artists involved in this movement, its history, and specifically the paintings and the person behind the name.įor the purpose of this paper, I have viewed Tarrant’s original paintings at the Institute of Ophthalmology and met Richard Keeler, Honorary Archivist for the Moorfields (Alumni) Association located in the joint library at the Institute of Ophthalmology. As I later discovered, this name is widely known throughout the field of ophthalmology and his work is highly revered. These feature a single name, Tarrant, in the bottom corner of the paintings. As well as the conventional ophthalmic photographs and scans, this latest edition contains 33 paintings of the retina. My interest in paintings of the retina began while working with John Salmon on the tenth edition of Kanski’s Clinical Ophthalmology. The early explorers of this new world documented the retinal landscapes, unlocking its secrets equipped with a paintbrush and an ophthalmoscope. When Albrecht von Graefe first examined the eye using Hermann von Helmholtz’s ophthalmoscope he exclaimed ‘Helmholtz has discovered for us a new world’.
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