Bowdoin College Homepage
Bowdoin College Museum of Art Logo and Wordmark

Advanced Search
Preview image of work. oil on canvas,  The Doctor's Surgery 39173
IIIF Logo
2020.4

Recommend keywords

Help us make our collections more accessible by providing keywords to describe this artwork. The BCMA uses the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus to provide consistent keywords. Enter a keyword in the field below and you will be prompted with a list of possible matching AAT preferred terms.

 
 

The Doctor's Surgery

Export record as: Plain text | JSON | CDWA-Lite | VRA Core 4

Artist

Egbert van Heemskerck (Haarlem, Netherlands, 1634 - 1704, London, United Kingdom)

Title

The Doctor's Surgery

Creation Date

ca. 1665-1675

Century

mid-17th century

Dimensions

25 1/4 x 30 1/4 in. (64.14 x 76.84 cm)

Classification

Paintings

Creation Place

Europe, Netherlands

Medium and Support

oil on canvas

Credit Line

Contributed in memory of Dr. Bernard & Mrs. Jeanette Gordon Halperin, a gift from their children

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

2020.4

Egbert van Heemskerck, the son of a Haarlem doctor, painted many medical genre scenes throughout his career. Here, his scene of an emergency surgery is rich in pathos and tension. The doctor tends to a patient slumped in a chair, while a woman covers her face in fear or grief. Others wait for care. Vanitas symbols found within the doctor’s quarters pessimistically pronounce the patient’s fate: a skull and femur, and a niche with a skull, a drawing of a bird, and an extinguished candle bell. Heemskerck’s upbringing in a doctor’s household likely accounts for the keen insight with which he rendered this interior, imbued with both accuracy and tense drama. Heemskerck’s painting is a reflection of the rise of, and increasing reliance on, modern scientific knowledge in European society. By showing a scene of the ill-fated man, Heemskerck likely comments on the limits of these new advancements.