Notes

Dorothy Kay's husband, Dr Hobart W A Kay, was a surgeon. In this etching, he is the surgeon facing the viewer, Dorothy's daughter, Patricia, is the nurse on the left, and the artist is the nurse on the right.

"Later, after Dorothy had made an etching of the subject, she writes 'Yes, the one nurse in the etching was Patty, the other me - Patty's expression caused people to talk when the painting was first shown - They had high faluting ideas about what thoughts were being thought - I said "She's wondering what there is for breakfast"- (a remark one of the doctors made towards the end of the operation!)....Although Joan [Kay's other daughter] had posed for the nurse on he right, Dorothy had substituted herself. Patricia is the left-hand nurse in both the painting and the etching. As a tribute to Hobart, Dorothy placed him as the central figure facing the viewer and he is clearly recognisable, particularly in the etching (his "devil's left eyebrow), despite the mask covering his face."

Marjorie Reynolds. (1989). "Ëverything you do is a portrait of yourself", Rosebank: Creda Press. Pages 90-91.

Literature

cf. Marjorie Reynolds (ed.) (1991) The Elvery Family: A Memory: Dorothy Kay, Cape Town: The Carrefour Press. A similar example of a painting of the same subject and title illustrated in colour on page 168.