The Physician (Dou)

Last updated
The Physician (1653) by Gerrit Dou Gerard Dou - The Physician - Christchurch Art Gallery.jpg
The Physician (1653) by Gerrit Dou

The Physician ("Doctor Studying a Bottle") is a 1653 oil painting by Dutch Golden Age artist Gerrit Dou, and is now part of the Christchurch Art Gallery. It exists in two versions: one (oil on copper sheet) in the Christchurch Art Gallery [1] and the other in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Vienna. [2]

Contents

Description

The artwork is a typical Leiden fijnschilders Dutch style "niche painting" of the 17th century. It depicts a figure (the physician) holding a bottle of orange liquid up to the light. A nosy maid or patient pokes her head around her basket to see what the physician (or, to the maid, her master) is doing. The theme is that of a common medical practice of uroscopy, and this popular art subject is commonly called a "piskijker" in Dutch inventories. The physician is painted with the features of Dou himself, and another version is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The relief below the window of children by Francois Duquesnoy was one that Dou repeated for many of his “niche paintings.”

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannes Vermeer</span> Dutch painter (1632–1675)

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. During his lifetime, he was a moderately successful provincial genre painter, recognized in Delft and The Hague. He produced relatively few paintings, primarily earning his living as an art dealer. He was not wealthy; at his death, his wife was left in debt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerrit Dou</span> Dutch painter (1613–1675)

Gerrit Dou, also known as GerardDouw or Dow, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialised in genre scenes and is noted for his trompe-l'œil "niche" paintings and candlelit night-scenes with strong chiaroscuro. He was a student of Rembrandt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Weenix</span> Dutch painter (1640–1719)

Jan Weenix or Joannis Wenix was a Dutch painter. He was trained by his father, Jan Baptist Weenix, together with his cousin Melchior d'Hondecoeter. Like his father, he painted various subjects, but is mostly known for his paintings of dead game and hunting scenes. Many paintings in this genre were formerly ascribed to the elder Weenix, but are now generally considered to be the work of the son.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerard ter Borch</span> Dutch Golden Age painter (1617–1681)

Gerard ter Borch, also known as Gerard Terburg, was a Dutch genre painter who lived in the Dutch Golden Age. He influenced fellow Dutch painters Gabriel Metsu, Gerrit Dou, Eglon van der Neer and Johannes Vermeer. According to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Ter Borch "established a new framework for subject matter, taking people into the sanctum of the home", showing the figures' uncertainties and expertly hinting at their inner lives. His influence as a painter, however, was later surpassed by Vermeer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kunsthistorisches Museum</span> Art museum in Vienna, Austria

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal dome. The term Kunsthistorisches Museum applies to both the institution and the main building. It is the largest art museum in the country and one of the most important museums worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utrecht Caravaggism</span> Art movement influenced by Caravaggio

Utrecht Caravaggism refers to the work of a group of artists who were from, or had studied in, the Dutch city of Utrecht, and during their stay in Rome during the early seventeenth century had become distinctly influenced by the art of Caravaggio. Upon their return to the Dutch Republic, they worked in a so-called Caravaggist style, which in turn influenced an earlier generation of local artists as well as artists in Flanders. The key figures in the movement were Hendrick ter Brugghen, Gerrit van Honthorst and Dirck van Baburen, who introduced Caravaggism into Utrecht painting around 1620. After 1630 the artists moved in other directions and the movement petered out. The Utrecht Caravaggisti painted predominantly history scenes and genre scenes executed in a realist style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Dirksz Both</span> 17th-century Dutch painter

Jan Dirksz Both was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher, who made an important contribution to the development of Dutch Italianate landscape painting.

<i>The Milkmaid</i> (Vermeer) 1658–1661 painting by Johannes Vermeer

The Milkmaid, sometimes called The Kitchen Maid, is an oil-on-canvas painting of a "milkmaid", in fact, a domestic kitchen maid, by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. It is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which regards it as "unquestionably one of the museum's finest attractions".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bartholomeus Spranger</span> Flemish painter

Bartholomeus Spranger or Bartholomaeus Spranger was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, sculptor, and designer of prints. Working in Prague as a court artist for the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II, he responded to his patron's aesthetic preferences by developing a version of the artistic style referred to as Northern Mannerism. This style stressed sensuality, which was expressed in smoothly modeled, elongated figures arranged in elegant poses, often including a nude woman seen from behind. Spranger's unique style combining elements of Netherlandish painting and Italian influences, in particular the Roman Mannerists, had an important influence on other artists in Prague and elsewhere, in particular the Dutch Republic, as his paintings were disseminated widely through prints as well as by artists who had worked with him such as Karel van Mander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joos van Cleve</span> Flemish painter

Joos van Cleve was a leading painter active in Antwerp from his arrival there around 1511 until his death in 1540 or 1541. Within Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, he combines the traditional techniques of Early Netherlandish painting with influences of more contemporary Renaissance painting styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan van den Hoecke</span> Flemish painter, draughtsman and designer (c. 1611–1651)

Jan van den Hoecke was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and designer of wall tapestries. He was one of the principal assistants in Rubens' studio in the 1630s. He later traveled to Italy where he resided for a decade in Rome. He subsequently worked as a court painter in Vienna and Brussels. Jan van den Hoecke was a versatile artist who created portraits as well as history and allegorical paintings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Fendi</span> Austrian artist (1796–1842)

Peter Fendi was an Austrian court painter, portrait and genre painter, engraver, and lithographer. He was one of the leading artists of the Biedermeier period.

<i>Lucretia and her Husband</i> 1515 painting by Titian

Lucretia and her Husband Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus or Tarquin and Lucretia is an oil painting attributed to Titian, dated to around 1515 and now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The attribution to this artist is traditional but uncertain - the brightened palette suggests it could instead be by Palma Vecchio. However, others identify the painting as part of Titian's series of half-length female figures from 1514 to 1515, which also includes the Flora at the Uffizi, the Woman with a Mirror at the Louvre, the Violante and the Young woman in a black dress in Vienna, Vanity in Munich and the Salome at the Galleria Doria Pamphilj. There is an early copy in the Royal Collection.

<i>Violante</i> (Titian) 1515 painting by Titian

Violante is an oil painting attributed to Titian, dated to around 1515 and now held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

<i>The Laundress</i> (Greuze) Painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze

The Laundress is a 1761 genre painting by French artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805), existing in two versions. The subject of laundresses, also known as washerwomen, was a popular one in art, especially in France.

<i>The Bravo</i> (Titian) 1516-17 painting by Titian

The Bravo is an oil painting usually attributed to Titian, dated to around 1516-17 and now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The painting can be seen as one of a number of Venetian paintings of the 1510s showing two or three half-length figures with heads close together, often with their expressions and interactions enigmatic. Most of these are "Giorgionesque" genre or tronie subjects where the subjects are anonymous, though the group includes Titian's The Tribute Money, with Christ as the main figure, which in terms of style is similar to this painting, and his Lucretia and her Husband, also in Vienna, where at least the woman's identity is clear, if not that of the man.

<i>Self-Portrait</i> (Dou, New York) Painting by Gerard Dou

Self-Portrait is a 1665 niche painting by Gerrit Dou. It shows the artist at the peak of his fame, holding a palette and surrounded by studio objects. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.

<i>The Quack Doctor</i> Painting by Gerrit Dou

The Quack Doctor is an oil-on-panel painting by the Dutch artist Gerrit Dou from 1652. It is held at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, in Rotterdam.

<i>Portrait of a Lady in Red</i> Painting by Gabriël Metsu

Portrait of a Lady in a Red Dress is a painting by Dutch artist Gabriël Metsu, created c. 1660-1669. It has been in England since 1828 and in the collection of Polesden Lacey since 1922.

<i>The Young Mother</i> (Dou) Painting by Gerrit Dou

The Young Mother is an oil painting by Dutch artist Gerrit Dou, from 1658. The signature of the artist appears subtely in the stained glass window, GDOV.1658. This genre piece has been part of the collection of the Mauritshuis, in The Hague, since 1822.

References

  1. "Gerrit Dou - The Physician". Christchurch Art Gallery. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  2. "Arzt". Kunsthistorisches Museum (in German). Retrieved 2024-04-23.

Sources