STUDIO OF SAMUEL VAN HOOGSTRATEN | THE ANAEMIC LADY

The subject of The Doctor's Visit was favoured by Dutch 17th-century artists as one that was characteristically both humorous and moralistic. The sickly-looking lady observes the viewer while a doctor holds up a flask of urine behind her and another man looks rather apprehensive. The cause of the lady's ailment is hinted at by the painting seen beyond in the far room, which depicts Venus, goddess of love; the foot-warmer, often a covert symbol of passion; and by the cat, which traditionally signifies lust, and which has caught a mouse between its paws. The hints at an illicit affair therefore rather add up to point at the doctor's likely diagnosis.

Another version of this painting is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.[1] When published by Sumowski in 1983, the figure of the man standing next to the doctor in that painting had been obscured - it has now been restored to its original appearance and the composition is almost identical to the present work.

1 Inv. no. SK-C-152; https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objects?q=samuel+van+hoogstraten&p=3&ps=12&st=Objects&ii=2#/SK-C-152,26