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The village surgeon

The village surgeon
(c. 1653)

Medium
oil on on wood panel

Measurements
29.3 × 24.5 cm

Credit Line
Bequest of Robert Victor Jones, 2026

Gallery location
17th Century & Flemish Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International

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About this work

Born into a family of brewers in Leiden, Southern Holland, Jan Steen became an assistant to the landscape and marine painter Jan van Goyen, whose daughter he married in 1649. The influence of another of his early teachers, Adriaen van Ostade, who specialised in painting scenes of daily life, can be seen in this lively depiction of a rural surgeon who appears to be
peeling skin from the leg of a protesting villager. This is an early work, made before Steen developed a more fijnschilder (fine painting) style. It is close in manner to Steen’s Country Doctor c. 1653 in The Leiden Collection, which features the same taxidermized crocodile in the background.

Artwork Details

Place/s of Execution
The Hague, the Netherlands

Department
International Painting