Jan Havicksz. Steen

A young woman leans over weakly in her chair, her head resting on a cushion on the table. The doctor is taking her pulse. What is the young lady suffering from? Probably she is not ill, just hopelessly in love. She is 'lovesick', her heart is broken. Jan Steen, the artist who painted the scene, depicted her with blushing cheeks and a smile on her lips. Contemporaries of Jan Steen would immediately have seen that this was not a real emergency. The 'doctor' is wearing clothes which were by then old-fashioned. Doctors in garments such as these were confined to the stage, where playwrights made fun of incompetent quacks.


Title The Sick Woman
Year c. 1665
ArtistJan Havicksz. Steen
Technique Oil on canvas
Dimensions 76 x 63,5 cm