About Us
About the Artists
Frank H. Netter, MD
Frank H. Netter was born in 1906, in New York City. He studied art at the Art Student’s League and the National Academy of Design before entering medical school at New York University, where he received his MD degree in 1931. During his student years, Dr. Netter’s notebook sketches attracted the attention of the medical faculty and other physicians, allowing him to augment his income by illustrating articles and textbooks. He continued illustrating as a sideline after establishing a surgical practice in 1933, but he ultimately opted to give up his practice in favor of a full-time commitment to art. After service in the United States Army during World War II, Dr. Netter began his long collaboration with the CIBA Pharmaceutical Company (now Novartis Pharmaceuticals). This 45-year partnership resulted in the production of the extraordinary collection of medical art so familiar to physicians and other medical professionals worldwide.
In 2005, Elsevier, Inc. purchased the Netter Collection and all publications from Icon Learning Systems. There are now over 50 publications featuring the art of Dr. Netter available through Elsevier, Inc. (in the US: www.us.elsevierhealth.com/Netter and outside the US: www.elsevierhealth.com )
Dr. Netter’s works are among the finest examples of the use of illustration in the teaching of medical concepts. The 13-book Netter Collection of Medical Illustrations, which includes the greater part of the more than 20,000 paintings created by Dr. Netter, became and remains one of the most famous medical works ever published. The Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy, first published in 1989, presents the anatomical paintings from the Netter Collection. Now translated into 16 languages, it is the anatomy atlas of choice among medical and health professions students the world over.
The Netter illustrations are appreciated not only for their aesthetic qualities, but, more important, for their intellectual content. As Dr. Netter wrote in 1949, “. . . clarification of a subject is the aim and goal of illustration. No matter how beautifully painted, how delicately and subtly rendered a subject may be, it is of little value as a medical illustration if it does not serve to make clear some medical point.” Dr. Netter’s planning, conception, point of view, and approach are what inform his paintings and what makes them so intellectually valuable.
Frank H. Netter, MD, physician and artist, died in 1991.
Learn more about the physician-artist whose work has inspired the Netter Reference collection:
http://www.netterimages.com/artist/netter.htm
Carlos Machado, MD
Carlos Machado was chosen by Novartis to be Dr. Netter’s successor. He continues to be the main artist who contributes to the Netter collection of medical illustrations.
Self-taught in medical illustration, cardiologist Carlos Machado has contributed meticulous updates to some of Dr. Netter’s original plates and has created many paintings of his own in the style of Netter as an extension of the Netter collection. Dr. Machado’s photorealistic expertise and his keen insight into the physician/patient relationship informs his vivid and unforgettable visual style. His dedication to researching each topic and subject he paints places him among the premier medical illustrators at work today.
Learn more about his background and see more of his art at: