The doctor's visit

The original, signed, on canvas, 76 x 63.5 cm, is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, since 1885 (H.P. Chapman, W. Kloek, A. Wheelock, Jan Steen, Painter and Storyteller, exhibition catalogue, Washington/Amsterdam, 1996, p.150, no.16, with ill.). As pointed out by A. Wheelock, the doctor's visit is one of Steen's favorite subjects. It allowed him to parody on the disease of lovesickness. Other interpretations of the subject are in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich and in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. All three pictures date from the early 1660's when the artist lived in Haarlem, whereby the original of the present lot is the most Ter Borch-like. As stated by L. de Vries, op.cit., p.72: 'In the determinate space, the wooden floor, the position of the bed and the concentration of a central group of figures brought out from the background, the artist shows himself in dialogue with Gerard ter Borch'.

See illustration