The Wellcome Collection commissioned two tactile interpretations of artworks from the Wellcome Gallery in London.

This is a detail from the painting ‘St Elizabeth Visiting the Sick’, Adam Elsheimer c 1598.

The second interpretation is of the etching ‘Portrait of Dr Gatchet’, Vincent Van Gogh 1890.  Images can be found here.

Both pieces are cast in resin with a bronze finish to combine the characteristics of fine detail with durability. They are light in weight to ease operation of the storage drawers in which they are displayed.

Elsheimer’s painting is complex and very detailed and therefore difficult to interpret for touch in its entirety within a small panel. Consequently this interpretation concentrates on one important foreground element of the painting, St. Elizabeth tending to a bedridden patient.