At the Patient

Artist from Leyden, active from 1648 to 1669. Possibly a pupil of Gerard Dou (1613–1675). Painted merry companies and peasant scenes, portraits, still lifes, kitchen scenes, as well as religious subjects and saints. Van Brekelencam’s compositions usually include many people, each with their own individual character. In the painting the patient’s tired face is submissive, the physician’s serious demeanour – assessing, the servant girl is sympathetic and the expression of the boy is self-conscious. Here, as in many of van Brekelencam’s works, the grey background wall sets off the various brown tones to good effect. The paint, applied in several thin layers, makes the tone clear and transparent. The artist has painted with short and free brush strokes to create gentle changes in colour. Van Brekelencam has managed to create both the plasticity of the facial skin and the sense of warmth, the sparkle of the satin and glass as well as the smoothness of the table surface and the fluffiness of the fur.