From von Graefe's clinic to the ecole des beaux-arts. The meteoric career of Richard Liebreich

Abstract

Richard Liebreich was a student of Helmholtz and took one of the first ophthalmoscopes to von Graefe's clinic. While von Graefe's assistant in Berlin, he created the first atlas of ophthalmoscopy. Liebreich moved to Paris, where he achived great success, due in part to successful surgery on Emperor Napoleon III's mother-in-law. After the fall of Napoleon in 1870, Liebreich moved to London, where he became the head of ophthalmology at St. Thomas hospital and medical school. Following several personal attacks in the medical literature, Liebreich returned to Paris, where he gradually retired from practice, yet continued a creative life as a sculptor, painter, and researcher in artistic technique.