Outstanding illustrator

TESTIMONIAL BY DR. NAPOLI

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  Lilly Ebstein | Clique para ver +
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  Faculdade de Medicina | Clique para ver +
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  Técnicas de ilustração científica | Clique para ver +

“Mrs. Lilly Lowenstein drew next to the patients, even during surgeries, and sometimes she would take pictures first. She was a modest and humble person; I recall seeing her talking to the aides in the corridor”.

Manlio Mario Marco Napoli, Professor Emeritus of USP’s School of Medicine, and who studied Medicine from 1941 to 1946, says; “My interaction with Mrs. Lowenstein happened from 1941 onward. I had heard of an outstanding illustrator and remember that she worked a lot with Carlos da Silva Lacaz, in Tropical Diseases, and Sebastião de Almeida Prado Sampaio, in Dermatology. I remember seeing her with the drawing board drawing. She was famous and she must have illustrated hundreds of theses. Her illustrations highlighted the theses. The illustration has the advantage of being a document with important details and it was much more real than a photograph that was not able to achieve the same result. Her prestige was extraordinary. She was artistically gifted. Documentation is the most important thing in Medicine. Regardless of our description, it is never like the drawing that speaks and portrays. She and her work inspired a lot of respect and she acquired a following at the School of Medicine. Mrs. Lowenstein used to draw next to the patients, including during surgeries, and would sometimes begin by taking photographs. She was a modest and humble person, I recall seeing her talking to the aides in the corridor”.

Lilly Ebstein Lowenstein (1897-1966) led a life between science and art, drawing and taking photographs in the fields of Medicine and Zoology. In her work, Lilly combined her technical knowledge of photography and drawing, the study of the sciences and a remarkable talent for aesthetics. She was born in Germany and studied at the Lette-Verein School in Berlin from 1911 to 1914. In 1925, she immigrated with her husband and two children to São Paulo. In 1926, she became an illustrator and photomicrographer at the Illustration and Photography Department at the School of Medicine (USP, as of 1934), which she headed for thirty years after 1932. Lilly collaborated at Instituto Biológico de Defesa Agrícola e Animal (the Biological Institute for the Defense of Agriculture and Animals), from 1930 to 1935, namely in the Avian Pathology Department. A life with art dedicated to the research and dissemination of science.