Recently I came across a small illustrated book, Jewish Life in Canada, published in 1976 by the artist William Kurelek and coauthor Abraham Arnold. An unusual name, Kurelek, stirred an old memory.
In 1953 I was working as a senior registrar at the Maudsley Hospital in London. One day, a young man aged 26 came to the hospital's front door depressed, dishevelled, and disorganised, and in obvious need of psychiatric care. The patient was assigned to me, and his history soon emerged.
He was of Ukrainian heritage, raised on a Canadian farm, where he had had a conflicted relationship with his father. He had travelled to England, partly to further his art education but also to seek the psychiatric treatment that he felt he needed. He wandered into the Maudsley Hospital, which he had read about in a book in a Montreal library.
I have a habit of preserving my diaries, and I found entries in May 1953 confirming my interviews with William Kurelek. He was transferred to Netherne Hospital in Surrey in November 1953 for further care. Before his transfer, he painted an autobiographical picture titled The Maze, rather in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, depicting his internal struggles and confusion. That painting is on display in the permanent collection of the Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives.
During the course of his illness, he painted a scene of labourers digging up tram rails in Camberwell, titled Tramlines. London Passenger Transport Board acquired it for 30 guineas, and it was displayed in their board room at the time. It is still in their archives (personal communication, Jonathan Riddell, curator, London Transport Museum).
After receiving electroconvulsive therapy at Netherne, he recovered, returned to Canada, and established a successful career as a painter of mainly prairie themes. He married and had four children. Sadly, he died of cancer at the age of 50 in 1977.
One of his paintings sold at auction for $240 000 (£135 000), and others are displayed in many museums in Canadian cities. He was memorialised in 1991 by the Canadian Post Office, which issued a set of stamps showing four of his paintings—Leaving Homeland, Winter in Canada, Clearing Land, and Growing Wheat. His paintings illustrating Jewish Life in Canada are in the collection of Mr and Ms Jules Loeb.
The clinical details mentioned are in the public domain and included, with the family's permission, in Kurelek: A Biography (1986) by Patricia Morley.
We welcome articles up to 600 words on topics such as A memorable patient, A paper that changed my practice, My most unfortunate mistake, or any other piece conveying instruction, pathos, or humour. Please submit the article on http://submit.bmj.com Permission is needed from the patient or a relative if an identifiable patient is referred to.