The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is a 1632 oil painting on canvas by Rembrandt housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. The painting is regarded as one of Rembrandt's early masterpieces. In the work, Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is pictured explaining the musculature of the arm to medical professionals. Some of the spectators are various doctors who paid commissions to be included in the painting. The painting is signed in the top-left hand corner "Rembrandt. f[ecit] 1632". This may be the first instance of Rembrandt signing a painting with
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp copy of "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp" by an unknown artist hangs in Edinburgh as part of The University of Edinburgh Fine Art Collection. "The Gross Clinic" of 1875 and "The Agnew Clinic" of 1889 are paintings by the American artist Thomas Eakins which treat a similar subject, operations on live patients in the presence of medical students. In 2010, Yiull Damaso created a parody of the painting depicting prominent South Africans. Nelson Mandela was the cadaver, Nkosi Johnson was the instructor, and the students were Desmond Tutu, F. W. de Klerk, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, Cyril Ramaphosa,