METSU, Gabriel
(b. 1629, Leiden, d. 1667, Amsterdam)

Visit of the Physician

1660-67
Oil on canvas, 61 x 48 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

A doctor visiting a sick young woman was a widely used subject bin Dutch genre painting. The tendency to allegory is displayed here, too: the illness is often lovesickness and its undesirable consequences, for which medicine is powerless. The doctor here is more of a disciplinarian than a healer.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.