Doctor’s Visitca. 1666–67

Jacob Toorenvliet(Leiden 1640 – 1719 Leiden)

oil on copper
52.3 x 41.3 cm
signed in light paint, lower left corner, beneathdoctor’s chair: “Jtoorenvliet Jnv[…] Fecit”
JT-102Currently on view at: Long Museum, Shanghai© 2017 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
Page 2 of 9

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Aono, Junko. "Doctor’s Visit." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. NewYork, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
Page 3 of 9This splendid picture is one of the finest of a series of “doctor’s visit”
scenes that Jacob Toorenvliet painted in the 1660s.

[1]Comparative Figures

The setting is aroom embellished with a beautifully coffered ceiling, a canopy bed with afringed curtain, a table covered with a luxurious tapestry, and a chair
upholstered with 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 inthe cylinder-shaped basket held by the handsomely dressed boy besidehim. As is typical of the artist’s early paintings, Toorenvliet has situatedthese brightly-lit figures against a dark background and enlivened hisFig 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

scene with bright reds and whites.[2] Also representative of his early
paintings is the smooth, enamel-like finish and delicate rendering of theminute details that animate his scene. For these thematic and stylistic
reasons it seems probable that Toorenvliet painted this scene in the midto late 1660s, probably around 1666 or 1667, as two of his other doctor’svisit scenes are dated 1666.[3]The doctor’s visit was a particularly popular subject among Leiden
painters in the 1650s and 1660s, among them Gerrit Dou (1613–75),
Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–81), and Jan Steen (1626–79).
Toorenvliet, who was born in Leiden, would have known their works.[4] In
paintings by each of these masters the female patient, looking pale andweak, is shown suffering from a malady for which there is no cure:Fig 2. Jan Steen, Doctor’s Visit,ca. 1661–62, oil on panel, 60.5 x
48.5 cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague,
inv. 168lovesickness. The doctor typically takes her pulse (a woman’s accelerating
pulse rate could betray her secret feeling of love) or tests her urine, thecolor, 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 and bookillustrations explicitly reveal the cause of the patient’s illness. In a small
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 abow, stands in the background, an indication that the woman’s condition isfatal (fig 1).[6]Painters of this theme adopted a more suggestive and subtle manner thanFig 3. Gerrit Dou, Doctor’s Visit,1653, oil on panel, 49.3 x 36.6
cm, Kusthistorisches
Museum, Vienna

the aforementioned illustrators to narrate the story of lovesickness. A good© 2017 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
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example is Steen’s Doctor’s Visit, ca. 1661–62 (fig 2).[7] In Steen’spicture, the doctor glances knowingly to the maid holding a bottle of urine,
an indication that he has come to a diagnosis that lovesickness is thecause of her illness. In case there should be any doubt on the part of theviewer, Steen included other motifs to reinforce the point: a modern-day
Cupid in the guise of a boy holding a bow and arrow and a painting on thewall in the background representing Venus and Adonis, an allusion to thetragic end of that love. Although Toorenvliet did not include suchsupporting motifs, the meaningful glances exchanged by the mistress andthe maid suggest that they are already fully aware of the cause of herillness.

Fig 4. Frans van Mieris theElder, Doctor’s Visit, 1657, oil onpanel, 34 x 27 cm,
Kusthistorisches Museum, Vienna

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 ofdissertations and publications in this field, and scholars and doctors
appreciated paintings with pseudo-medical subjects.[8] Dou, who wasToorenvliet’s uncle by marriage, created the prototype of the doctor
inspecting urine in his Doctor’s Visit, 1653 (fig 3).[9] In his painting thedoctor holds up a flask in order to get a better look at the fluid, while theelderly maidservant, who brought the sample of her mistress’s urine,
awaits his diagnosis. The physician’s pose, in reverse, is remarkably
similar to that of Toorenvliet’s doctor, which suggests that Toorenvliet wasaware of Dou’s prototype. At the same time, he must have known andrespondedtoVan

Mieris’sDoctor’sVisit,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 wasfoolproof, Toorenvliet represents his doctor simultaneously examining thewoman’s urine and taking her pulse, thereby joining together the narrative
approaches of 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, haspostulated that the painter departed for Rome shortly after completing histraining in the early 1660s, and that he subsequently moved from Rome toVienna in the late 1660s (see biography). As a result of his research it now© 2017 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
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seems probable that Toorenvliet executed this work while he was living
abroad. Given Toorenvliet’s international ambitions, it is understandable
that he would have chosen to depict this characteristic Leiden subject after
he had left his home country. By associating himself with great
predecessors, he presented himself as a painter in the esteemed Leiden
tradition of Dou and Van Mieris, whose artistic reputations in the courts ofEurope were unparalleled.[12] Their fame must have had an immeasurable
impact on Toorenvliet and other Leiden painters of the next generation.
Where Toorenvliet worked on his Doctor’s Visit remains uncertain, yet thisexquisite example of his early work bears witness to the artist’s ambition tocreate a market niche abroad as a successor to the illustrious painters ofLeiden.
-Junko Aono

© 2017 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
Page 6 of 9Endnotes
1. Susanne H. Karau, Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)(Ph.D. diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), nos. A13, 14, and 15.
2. Susanne H. Karau, Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)(Ph.D. diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), 156–57.
3. Susanne H. Karau, Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)(Ph.D. diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), nos. A14 and 15.
4. For a detailed study of this theme, see 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 4 (Berlin, 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 4 (Berlin, 1987), 204–5; Laurinda S.
Dixon, Perilous Chastity: Women and Illness in Pre-Enlightenment Art and Medicine (Ithacaand 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., NationalGallery of Art; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (New Haven and London, 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 proefsteen 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 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 a flask. See
Petterson “‘Amans Amanti Medicus,’” 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 thepatient’s pulse and examines her urine, Steen usually represented a doctor simply taking awoman’s pulse (The Physician’s Visit, Wellington Museum, Apsley House, London; and The
Lovesick Woman, Alte Pinakothek, Munich). See H. Perry Chapman, Wouter Th. Kloek, andArthur K. Wheelock Jr., Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller , ed. Guido Jansen (Exh. cat.
© 2017 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
Page 7 of 9Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Zwolle, 1996),
150–53, no. 16; and Mariët Westermann, The Amusements of Jan Steen: Comic Painting in
the Seventeenth Century (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 4 (Berlin, 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. (Ph.D. 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:
Verzeichnis der 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, DieGemäldegalerie des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien: Verzeichnis der Gemälde(Vienna, 1991), 84; and Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. TheHague, 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 thefirst instance when an artist depicted a doctor undertaking these dual examinations. See
Susanne H. 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
than Toorenvliet’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 GerritDou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (Ph,D, diss., New York University, 1990), 102; eadem,Gerrit Dou
1613–1675 (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), 1:24. Furthermore,in the year 1660, pictures by Dou and Van Mieris had entered the collections of different
European royals, which established their international reputations: Dou’s paintingThe Young© 2017 The Leiden CollectionDoctor’s Visit
Page 8 of 9Mother (1658, Mauritshuis, The Hague) was sent to Charles II of England 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, probablyat 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 TheLeiden 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].

ReferencesGalerie Sanct Lucas, Wien, Gemälde Alter Meister, Sommer 1972. Vienna, 1972, no. 24.
Karau, Susanne Henriette. Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719). Ph.D. diss. Universität Berlin, 2002, 31, n. 82, and no. B28.

Technical Summary
The support, a rectangular copper sheet with minor distortions along the upper corners andcenter of the left edge, has been adhered to a similarly sized backing board. Narrow wood shims© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Doctor’s VisitPage 9 of 9with mitered 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 and remnants 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

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

© 2017 The Leiden Collection