© 2020 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
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Doctor’s Visitca. 1666–67
oil on copper
52.3 x 41.3 cm
signed in light paint, lower left corner,
beneath doctor’s chair: “Jtoorenvliet Jnv[…]
Fecit”
JT-102

Jacob Toorenvliet(Leiden 1640 – 1719 Leiden)

How to cite
Aono, Junko. “Doctor’s Visit” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/the-doctors-visit/ (archived May2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrativeoccurs.

This splendid picture is one of the finest of a series of “doctor’s visit” scenes[1]that Jacob Toorenvliet painted in the 1660s.

Comparative Figures

The setting is a room

embellished with a beautifully coffered ceiling, a canopy bed with a fringed
curtain, a table covered with a luxurious tapestry, and a chair upholsteredwith red fabric. The patient, a weak, elegantly dressed woman lying in bed,exchanges meaningful gazes with the maid, who tenderly cares for her. A
gray-bearded doctor takes the woman’s pulse while examining a flask
containing her urine. He presumably brought the flask in the cylinder-shapedbasket held by the handsomely dressed boy beside him. As is typical of theartist’s early paintings, Toorenvliet has situated these brightly-lit figures
against a dark background and enlivened his scene with bright reds and

Fig 1. Jacob Cats, A Doctor
Tending to Rhodopis in bed,
from ’s Werelts begin, midden,
eynde besloten in den trou-ringh,met den proef-steen van den
selven, Dordrecht, 1637

whites.[2] Also representative of his early paintings is the smooth, enamel-likefinish and delicate rendering of the minute details that animate his scene. For© 2020 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
Page 3 of 9

these thematic and stylistic reasons it seems probable that Toorenvliet
painted this scene in the mid- to late 1660s, probably around 1666 or 1667,
as two of his other doctor’s visit scenes are dated 1666.[3]The doctor’s visit was a particularly popular subject among Leiden paintersin the 1650s and 1660s, among them Gerrit Dou (1613–75), Frans van
Mieris the Elder (1635–81), and Jan Steen (1626–79). Toorenvliet, who wasborn in Leiden, would have known their works.[4] In paintings by each ofthese masters the female patient, looking pale and weak, is shown sufferingfrom a malady for which there is no cure: lovesickness. The doctor typicallytakes her pulse (a woman’s accelerating pulse rate could betray her secretfeeling of love) or tests her urine, the color, texture, and smell of which could
reveal the patient’s mental condition, including a state of melancholy caused
by lovesickness.[5] In fact, early examples of the doctor’s visit in emblemata

Fig 2. Jan Steen, The Phyisican'sVisit, ca. 1658–62, oil on panel, 49
x 42 cm, The Wellington
Collection, Apsley House, inv. no.
WM.1525-1948, © Historic
England Archive.

and book illustrations explicitly reveal the cause of the patient’s illness. In asmall print from ’s Werelts begin, midden, eynde besloten in den trou-ringh,met den proef-steen van den selven by Jacob Cats, a “sick” woman named
Rhodopis lies in her bed with an arrow through her heart. The arrow belongs
to the cupid who stands beside her bed. Death, also carrying a bow, stands
in the background, an indication that the woman’s condition is fatal (fig 1).[6]Painters of this theme adopted a more suggestive and subtle manner than
the aforementioned illustrators to narrate the story of lovesickness. A good
example is Steen’s The Physician’s Visit, ca. 1658–62 (fig 2).[7] In Steen’spicture, the doctor glances knowingly to the maid holding a bottle of urine, anindication that he has come to a diagnosis that lovesickness is the cause ofher illness. In case there should be any doubt on the part of the viewer,

Fig 3. Gerrit Dou, Doctor’s Visit,1653, oil on panel, 49.3 x 36.6 cm,
Kusthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Steen included other motifs to reinforce the point: a modern-day Cupid in theguise of a boy holding a bow and arrow and a painting on the wall in thebackground representing Venus and Adonis, an allusion to the tragic end ofthat love. Although Toorenvliet did not include such supporting motifs, themeaningful glances exchanged by the mistress and the maid suggest thatthey are already fully aware of the cause of her illness.
The popularity of the doctor’s visit theme in Leiden was partially due to theacademic environment stimulated by its prominent university. Scholarlyinterest in medical science was reflected in the large number of dissertations
and publications in this field, and scholars and doctors appreciated paintings
with pseudo-medical subjects.[8] Dou, who was Toorenvliet’s uncle bymarriage, created the prototype of the doctor inspecting urine in his Doctor’sVisit, 1653 (fig 3).[9] In his painting the doctor holds up a flask in order to get

Fig 4. Frans van Mieris theElder, Doctor’s Visit, 1657, oil on
panel, 34 x 27 cm,
Kusthistorisches Museum, Vienna© 2020 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
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a better look at the fluid, while the elderly maidservant, who brought thesample of her mistress’s urine, awaits his diagnosis. The physician’s pose,in reverse, is remarkably similar to that of Toorenvliet’s doctor, whichsuggests that Toorenvliet was aware of Dou’s prototype. At the same time,
he must have known and responded to Van Mieris’s Doctor’s Visit, 1657 (fig4).[10] Toorenvliet clearly based his composition and individual motifs on thispicture, among them the diagonally placed canopy bed and the carpet
covered table. Notably, Van Mieris depicted the doctor taking the patient’s
pulse rather than examining her urine, as Dou had done. As though doubting
whether either one of these examination techniques was foolproof,
Toorenvliet represents his doctor simultaneously examining the woman’surine and taking her pulse, thereby joining together the narrative approachesof his predecessors.[11]It has long been supposed that Toorenvliet executed Doctor’s Visit in Leiden
prior to leaving for Rome around 1670. Piet Bakker, however, has postulated
that the painter departed for Rome shortly after completing his training in theearly 1660s, and that he subsequently moved from Rome to Vienna in thelate 1660s (see biography). As a result of his research it now seems
probable that Toorenvliet executed this work while he was living abroad.
Given Toorenvliet’s international ambitions, it is understandable that hewould have chosen to depict this characteristic Leiden subject after he had
left his home country. By associating himself with great predecessors, hepresented himself as a painter in the esteemed Leiden tradition of Dou andVan Mieris, whose artistic reputations in the courts of Europe wereunparalleled.[12] Their fame must have had an immeasurable impact on
Toorenvliet and other Leiden painters of the next generation. WhereToorenvliet worked on his Doctor’s Visit remains uncertain, yet this exquisite
example of his early work bears witness to the artist’s ambition to create amarket niche abroad as a successor to the illustrious painters of Leiden.

- Junko Aono, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
Page 5 of 9Endnotes

1. Susanne H. Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)”(PhD diss. Universität Berlin, 2002), nos. A13, 14, and 15.
2. Susanne H. Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)”(PhD diss. Universität Berlin, 2002), 156–57.
3. Susanne H. Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)”(PhD diss. Universität Berlin, 2002), nos. A14 and 15.
4. For a detailed study of this theme, see Einer Petterson, “‘Amans Amanti Medicus’: DieIconologie des Motivs ‘Der artzliche Besuch,’” in Hollandische Genremalerei im 17.
Jahrhundert, ed. Henning Bock and Thomas W. Gaehtgens, special issue no. 4, Jahrbuch
Preussischer Kulturbesitz 4 (1987): 195–224.
5. Einer Petterson, “‘Amans Amanti Medicus’: Die Iconologie des Motivs ‘Der artzlicheBesuch,’” in Hollandische Genremalerei im 17. Jahrhundert, ed. Henning Bock and ThomasW. Gaehtgens, Jahrbuch Preussischer Kulturbesitz, special issue no. 4 (Berlin, 1987), 204–5;
Laurinda S. Dixon, Perilous Chastity: Women and Illness in Pre-Enlightenment Art andMedicine (Ithaca and London, 1995), 109; H. Perry Chapman, Wouter Th. Kloek, and Arthur
K. Wheelock Jr., Jan Steen, Painter and Storyteller, ed. Guido Jansen (Exh. cat. Washington
D.C., National Gallery of Art; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (New Haven, 1996), 150–51, 153, n.
13.
6. The physician, who takes the woman’s pulse and simultaneously examines her urine in aflask, is a prototype of the multitasking doctor that Toorenvliet later depicted in his work.
Jacob Cats, ’s Werelts begin, midden, eynde besloten in den trou-ringh met den proef-steen
van den selven (Dordrecht, 1637), 704. See also Einer Petterson, “‘Amans Amanti
Medicus’: Die Iconologie des Motivs ‘Der artzliche Besuch,’” in Hollandische Genremalerei im
17. Jahrhundert, ed. Henning Bock and Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Jahrbuch PreussischerKulturbesitz, special issue no. 4 (Berlin, 1987), 211. Otto van Veen’s Emblemata Amorum(1614) also includes an emblem showing a cupid taking the patient’s pulse and holding aflask. See Einer Petterson, “‘Amans Amanti Medicus’: Die Iconologie des Motivs ‘Der
artzliche Besuch,’” in Hollandische Genremalerei im 17. Jahrhundert, ed. Henning Bock andThomas W. Gaehtgens, Jahrbuch Preussischer Kulturbesitz, special issue no. 4 (1987): 209.
7. Jan Steen, who made no fewer than 19 paintings on the subject, always indicated that thepatient was suffering from lovesickness by including motifs that alluded to the woman’s loveaffair. With the exception of the painting in Haywards Heath, England (the Collection, Colonel
Sir Ralph Clarke, Haywards Heath, England), in which the doctor both takes the patient’s
pulse and examines her urine, Steen usually represented a doctor simply taking a woman’s© 2020 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
Page 6 of 9pulse (The Physician’s Visit, Wellington Museum, Apsley House, London; and The LovesickWoman, Alte Pinakothek, Munich). See H. Perry Chapman, Wouter Th. Kloek, and Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr., Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller, ed. Guido Jansen (Exh. cat. Washington
D.C., National Gallery of Art; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (New Haven, 1996), 150–53, no. 16;
and Mariët Westermann, The Amusements of Jan Steen: Comic Painting in the SeventeenthCentury (Zwolle, 1997), 99–106.
8. The production of theatrical plays that narrated the story of lovesickness could also havecontributed to the popularity of this theme in the art of painting. Einer Petterson, “‘Amans
Amanti Medicus’: Die Iconologie des Motivs ‘Der artzliche Besuch,’” in Hollandische
Genremalerei im 17. Jahrhundert, ed. Henning Bock and Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Jahrbuch
Preussischer Kulturbesitz, special issue no. 4 (1987): 212–14; and Mariët Westermann, The
Amusements of Jan Steen: Comic Painting in the Seventeenth Century (Zwolle, 1997),
99–105.
9. Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (PhD diss. New YorkUniversity, 1990), cat. no. 62; and Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, Wolfgang Prohaska, Karl Schütz,and Martina Haja, Die Gemäldegalerie des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien: Verzeichnisder Gemälde (Vienna, 1991), 50.
10. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: 22–24, no. 20;
Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, Wolfgang Prohaska, Karl Schütz, and Martina Haja, Die
Gemäldegalerie des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien: Verzeichnis der Gemälde (Vienna,1991), 84; and Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague,Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Zwolle, 2005), 107–10, no. 13.
11. Toorenvliet first depicted this type of doctor in a picture dated 1663, which is probably the firstinstance when an artist depicted a doctor undertaking these dual examinations. See SusanneH. Karau, Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719) (Ph.D. diss.,
Universität Berlin, 2002), cat. nos. A13 and D19. Caspar Netscher and Jan Steen also
depicted the same multitasking doctor, but their pictures were made slightly later thanToorenvliet’s: Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch
Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), 181–82, no. 24. For Jan Steen, see note 7.
12. It is possible that the two pictures of doctors by Dou and Van Mieris mentioned above (figs. 3and 4), now in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, were part of theimperial collection in the Viennese court during the 1660s. They were, however, notmentioned in the Archduke’s inventory of 1659–60, and it is unknown how they would havebeen purchased and incorporated into the collection. Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit
Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (PhD diss. New York University, 1990), 102; eadem, Gerrit Dou
1613–1675, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art;
London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis) (The Hague and Washington D.C.,
2000), 31; and Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:© 2020 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
Page 7 of 924. Furthermore, in the year 1660, pictures by Dou and Van Mieris had entered thecollections of different European royals, which established their international reputations:Dou’s painting The Young Mother (1658, Mauritshuis, The Hague) was sent to Charles II ofEngland as part of the “Dutch gift,” and Van Mieris’s painting The Cloth Shop (1660,Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) was acquired by Archduke Leopold in Vienna for an
exorbitantly high price, probably at least 1,000 guilders.

Provenance[Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna, 1972].
Private collection, Vienna [Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna, 2007].
From whom purchased by the present owner.

Exhibition History
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, January
2011–August 2015 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden
Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lentby the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by thepresent owner].

References
Galerie Sanct Lucas. Galerie Sanct Lucas, Wien, Gemälde Alter Meister, Sommer 1972.
Vienna, 1972, no. 24.
© 2020 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
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Karau, Susanne Henriette. “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719).” PhD diss. Universität Berlin, 2002, 31, n. 82, and no. B28.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Doctor’s Visit.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 138–9; 186, no. 59. Translated by Li Ying.
Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund.
Shanghai, 2017, 138–39.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Doctor’s Visit.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 216–17; 247, no. 75. Translated byDaria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts;
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.

Technical Summary
The support, a rectangular copper sheet with minor distortions along the upper corners and centerof the left edge, has been adhered to a similarly sized backing board. Narrow wood shims withmitered corners have been attached with brads to all four sides and the enlarged supplementary
support has been cradled.[1] There is one red wax seal, a black stencil, a red ink inscription andremnants of a paper label, but no maker’s marks along the cradle.
Small, light-colored, granular inclusions appear to be beneath the paint, presumably part of aground layer. The inclusions appear to be densest along the green bed curtain. The paint has
been smoothly applied and the tops of the light-colored inclusions remain exposed
The painting is indistinctly signed in light paint along the lower left corner beneath the doctor’schair, but is it is undated.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 720 nanometers.[2]Compositional changes visible in the infrared images include slight shifts in position of both thepatient’s and the maid’s proper right hands. The proper left hand of the maid was added after thepatient’s sleeve was painted, and a pentimento across the lemon on the table allows the silver
plate to show through.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2005 and remains
in a good state of preservation.[3]Technical Summary Endnotes© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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1. Construction based on visual examination of the X-radiograph and high-resolution front andreverse images.
2. Additional information may be revealed at wavelengths that penetrate further into the infraredregion.
3. Entry based in part on examination report by Jevon Thistlewood, paintings conservator,
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection