A cardiologist who treated acclaimed Australian artist Robert Juniper has been immortalised in an oil painting entered in this year’s Archibald prize.
Perth cardiologist Dr Johan Janssen's 83 year-old stroke patient picked up his paint brush during his recovery from an emergency thoracotomy and months in intensive care.
“Johan breezed into my hospital room and said, ‘Robert, I want you to do something for me’.
When a doctor says that you think, ‘hell, he’s going to tell me to lay off the booze or something’.
He said, ‘I’d like you to paint your feelings about being in hospital.”
Dr Janssen called the portrait “gobsmacking, vivid and uplifting, not the sombre work you might expect from someone so seriously ill”.
“He [Juniper] could live another 20 years like this. I think it’s fantastic that somebody can go through such a struggle and lift themselves up and make great things like this,” he said.
Dr Janssen hoped he would be able to buy the work after its foray on the Archibald circuit.