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This is one painting of a pair by the German-born Willem Joseph Laquy, attesting the great love and admiration felt in Germany in the eighteenth century for the 'fine painting' school of painters who worked in Leiden in The Netherlands in the seventeenth century. Their painting is called 'fine' in the sense of detailed, delicate and precise. This pair of pictures shows the interior of a pharmacy, with, in one case a male savant, physician or philosopher holding a urine flask up to the light, and in the other a woman looking at a monkey who holds a urine flask inverted. In traditional western medicine, examination of the colour and texture of urine is the principal source of diagnosis, along with the patient's appearance, history, and pulse. The richly decorated pharmacy behind is similar, but not continuous, in the two paintings.
Title
A Physician or Apothecary Examining a Flask at a Casement
Date
1780
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 47 x W 39 cm
Accession number
47375i
Acquisition method
purchased
Work type
Painting
Inscription description
Laqui f.1760 GVI../1780
