"The physician's verdict". Oil painting by Emile Carolus Leclercq, 1857.

The physician's hat, gloves and cane are shown in the background, right. The physician, seated on the right, reaches across the cradle of a sick infant to clasp the wrist of the young mother, who sits on the left. The father is not shown

One of several nineteenth-century paintings (of which Luke Fildes' 1891 painting 'The doctor' in Tate Britain is the best known British example) that take the theme of the physician attending a patient and turn it into a puzzle picture: they invite the viewer to share the feelings of the people in the picture and ask "Will the physician's verdict be good or bad?". The choice of subject reflects the fact that prognosis has a large role in traditional western medicine

1857.

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 71.2 x 87.7 cm

Select images of this work were taken by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum: WT/D/1/20/1/75/91

Emile Carolus Leclercq was a Belgian painter of history pictures and and portraits. Later in life, using the pseudonyms Raoul de Montaiglon and P.-J. Herment, he wrote plays, short stories, and art-criticism (L'art est rationnel, 1882)

Wellcome Collection 45025i