The Doctor's Visit

Gallery 362, European Art 1500-1850, third floor

Main Building

The Doctor's Visit

c. 1660-1665

Jan Steen (Dutch (active Leiden, Haarlem, and The Hague), 1626–1679)

Jan Steen is known for his entertaining and moralizing scenes of contemporary Dutch life. One of his favorite themes was the doctor’s visit, usually to a young woman suffering from lovesickness or pregnancy. The ribbon smoldering on the brazier near the patient’s foot was a quack technique for determining pregnancy. The doctor checks her pulse and appears startled by its quickening, a possible reaction to the man in the doorway, who is presumably the cause of her illness. The laughing figure holding a herring above the woman seems to confirm her predicament and folly.

Gallery 362, European Art 1500-1850, third floor

Object Details

Title:

The Doctor's Visit

Date:

c. 1660-1665

Artist:

Jan Steen (Dutch (active Leiden, Haarlem, and The Hague), 1626–1679)

Medium:

Oil on panel

Dimensions:

18 1/8 × 14 1/2 inches (46 × 36.8 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

John G. Johnson Collection, 1917

Accession Number:

Cat. 510

Geography:

Made in Netherlands, Europe

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Gallery 362, European Art 1500-1850, third floor

Main Building

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