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The Doctor's Examination

Godfried Schalckenc. 1690

Mauritshuis

Mauritshuis
Den Haag, Netherlands

This panel belongs with A Useless Moral Lesson by Godfried Schalcken. It shows the consequences of rashly losing your virginity. A young woman is sobbing, while the quack – a ‘piskijker’, or piss looker – examines her urine. In it, he sees a baby swimming, which is supposed to prove that she is pregnant. The man on the left is angry, but the boy on the right is laughing at the painful situation. He is making an obscene gesture, while looking at the viewer.

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  • Title: The Doctor's Examination
  • Creator: Schalcken, Godefridus
  • Date Created: c. 1690
  • Physical Dimensions: h35 cm x w28.6 cm
  • Provenance: Evert van Sypesteyn, Utrecht, until 1713; his sale, Utrecht, 11 April 1714 (Lugt 244), nos. 4-5 (450 guilders); Adriaan Bout, The Hague; his sale, The Hague, 11 August 1733 (Lugt 427), nos. 75-76 (for 930 guilders to Philip van Dijk for Prince William IV); Prince William IV, Het Loo Palace, Apeldoorn, 1733-1751; by inheritance to Prince William V, Het Loo Palace, Apeldoorn and The Hague, 1751-1795; both paintings confiscated by the French, transferred to the Muséum central des arts/Musée Napoléon (Musée du Louvre), Paris, 1795-1815; Royal Picture Gallery, housed in the Prince William V Gallery, The Hague, 1816; transferred to the Mauritshuis in 1822; both paintings on loan to the Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem, 1952-1977
  • Type: Painting
  • Medium: Oil on panel
Mauritshuis

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