W. Eugene Smith
Dr. Ceriani delivers a baby

cropped recto of mount

© Estate of W. Eugene Smith

Dr. Ceriani delivers a baby
cropped recto of mount
ArtistAmerican, 1918–1978
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Dr. Ceriani delivers a baby
  • from the series The Country Doctor
Date1948
PlaceUnited States
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage/Sheet: 9 9/16 × 13 5/16 in. (24.3 × 33.8 cm)
Mount: 20 × 15 15/16 in. (50.8 × 40.5 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Mr. and Mrs. B. W. Crain in honor of E. L. Crain, M.D.
Object number85.97
Not on view

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Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

Smith (1918–1978) first gained wide recognition when he was hired by Life Magazine to cover American troops in the Pacific during World War II. After recovering from the wounds he received in the battle for Okinawa, Smith produced four major photographic essays for Life, including his most famous, Country Doctor.


W. Eugene Smith spent weeks immersing himself in the lives of his subjects, a practice that differed from the standard of the time. However, the success of Smith’s pictures with both his editors and the magazine’s public won him the right to spend the time he needed and wanted on each assignment, at least for a while.


The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, owns nearly a complete version of Smith’s 1948 photographic essay Country Doctor, as it was originally published in Life magazine. Dr. Ernest Ceriani, a physician in private practice in Kremmling, Colorado (population 1,000), was the subject. Smith followed him as he tended to the town’s medical needs, which ranged from stitches for a child kicked by a horse, to draining an infected ear, to basic surgery. Dr. Ceriani’s office had 14 beds and served as the town hospital.


Provenance[Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc., Malvern, Pennsylvania]; purchased by MFAH, 1985.
Exhibition HistoryEXhibited: Mr. Sandy Parkerson, Houston TX. December 12, 1985, (LN:85.38)

"W. Eugene Smith and James Nachtwey," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 14 October 2012 - 1 January 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
verso upper center in pencil " Country Doctor "
lower center in ink " A.E.Woolley, PhD / Collection / Cherry Hill, NJ[enclosed within a box] "
verso center two stamps one above the other " CREDIT 7 COPYRIGHT / © W.EUGENE SMITH / 821 AVE. OF THE AMERICAS / NEW YORK1, N.Y. / TEL. 212 LA 4-6935 "
" THIS PHOTOGRAPH MAY NOT BE / REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT OF / W.EUGENE SMITH "

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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cropped recto of sheet
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
85.95
cropped recto of mount
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
85.96
Contents of Dr. Ceriani's bag
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.254
Dr. Ceriani on horseback
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.252
Dr. Ceriani tapes broken ribs
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.237
Dr. Ceriani carries a patient from basement ward to operating room
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.235
Before the amputation, Dr. Ceriani checks the patient's blood pressure
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.236
4:15 a.m. Dr. Ceriani gets a ride to Gore Canyon
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.231
5:00 a.m. Dr. Ceriani begins his day fishing in Colorado River
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.232
2:00 a.m., Dr. Ceriani has coffee and a cigarette in hospital kitchen
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.229
Dr. Ceriani examines boy with swollen eye
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.239
Dr. Ceriani with amputee Thomas Mitchell
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.240