Dr. Norman
Bethune Sick in Bed, 1935, by Norman Bethune
Four years after
drawing himself sick in bed, Norman Bethune (1890-1939), better known as a martyr than an
artist, died in China from an infection received while operating on wounded soldiers
there.
The Chinese
Communist leader, Mao Zedong, called him a hero and had a museum and hospital erected in
his honour. Credited with the invention of the mobile blood bank, this thoracic surgeon
was also an early supporter of universal health care in Canada.
An empassioned
Communist, Bethune appropriately portrays himself reading Marx in this drawing which he
gave to his friend and artist Marian Dale Scott.
|
