Inez Demonet

Inez Michon Demonet (April 25, 1897 – 1980) was an American painter and medical illustrator known for establishing modern Medical Arts at the National Institutes of Health.

Early life

She was born Inez Michon Demonet in 1897 in Washington, D.C., to George H. Demonet and Emily Demonet. Her father was French and her mother was Belgian. Her specialty was maxillofacial and plastic surgery illustration. Her work included illustrations for journals such as the Journal of the National Malaria Society whose authors called her work "as accurate a representation of the actual appearance... as it is possible to attain." Her illustrations for the book Manual of Microscopical Diagnosis were called "true masterpieces" when describing illustrations of the morphology of stained parasites.

She occasionally did other non-medical illustrations, such as for The Anatomy and Physiology of the Light Organ in Fireflies published in the journal Bioluminescence in 1948. From 1960 through 1965, she worked as a Fine and Applied Arts Consultant for Medical Arts, working on the interiors of buildings in the DC area. She retired from NIH in 1965 and moved to Green Valley, Arizona in 1971.

Artistic work Demonet also worked in other mediums and was a member of the Washington Water Color Club, the Society of Washington Printmakers, and the Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Two of her etchings are held by The Booth Family Center for Special Collections at Georgetown University and some of her etchings were purchased by President Roosevelt.