The Head, from A System of Dissections

The neck’s vessels, drawn by the author.

Work: from A System of Dissections
Maker: Charles Bell
Date: c. 1798
Held by: Published Edinburgh, c. 1798 · Wellcome Collection

Format

The full-resolution scan, colour-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.

Size

$29.00

The story

From Charles Bell's A System of Dissections, the Edinburgh anatomist's guide for students, whose title promised to show the manner of displaying the parts and to point out the objects most worthy of attention. The head is turned back and the side of the face and neck dissected to the vessels and nerves, drawn in soft line on a large page. Bell was a gifted draughtsman who later wrote on anatomy for painters; his plates have a feeling for the person that most atlases lack. Wellcome Collection.

See it on your wall

The plate, in the room it was made for

The Head, from A System of Dissections, printed large and framed — in the consulting room, the study, the library. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.

The Head, from A System of Dissections framed on the wall

About this reproduction

A reproduction of from A System of Dissections — Charles Bell, c. 1798 — from the copy held by Published Edinburgh, c. 1798 · Wellcome Collection. The source. The work is centuries out of copyright and in the public domain.
Printed faithful to that source scan. We do not re-colour it, complete it, or interpret it; the plate you receive is the plate as it survives.
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm. Framed editions sit in a box frame under acrylic, with no mount.
Colour-managed to the source; the tone of the paper and the ink is the engraver’s, not ours.
Ships in 5–10 business days.
If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.

Why our plates cost more than a poster: a poster is a mass run on wood-pulp stock, colour-corrected to whatever flattered the press that day. This is one sheet, pulled for you, at a size where the engraver’s hand is visible — the linework, the tonal work, the lettering — on a matte sheet that shows every line without glare.

From the same hand