A researcher and painter nigh on 90 years, this is the perfect time to reflect on why I chose a career in medicine— specifically cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology—and whether there is a privileged relationship between an interest in medicine and an interest in art, specifically the practice of painting.

CARDIOVASCULAR PHARMACOLOGIST

I was born on July 4, 1921, in Gyo´´r, the largest city in the northwest region of the newly independent Hungary. It lies halfway between Budapest and Vienna, on the border with modern Slovakia. To German speakers it was known as Raab, and to Slovaks as Ráb, from the name of one of the rivers running through it, close to its cobbled Baroque center. Both my father and grandfather were physicians, trained under the Austro-Hungarian empire, and their positive example left me in little doubt as to my choice of profession...