It was remarkable seeing The physician in late April in "Angels & Aristocrats". I've always enjoyed it in Christchurch, but it dazzles in such good company in Dunedin.
The physician is one of a number of versions painted by Gerrit Dou, a 17th-century Leiden-born painter and a student of Rembrandt. Famous for his precisely rendered genre images (in his own time a painting by Dou could fetch the same price as a house), he was well known also for engraving and glass painting.
The seemingly prosperous doctor is a self-portrait, and his intense inspection of a flask of urine suggests a pregnancy test is under way. Given the book that is his reference, he is likely to be a trained doctor rather than a quack and, as Mary Kisler notes in her exhibition publication, the cowering woman in the shadows suggests she dreads his prognosis - or she may be acutely embarrassed by the procedure.
The physician is remarkably detailed and painted on copper rather than canvas. The frieze below features a goat being cajoled by naked cherubs towards another masked cherub. Derived from a sculpted frieze by Flemish artist Francois Dusquesnoy, a baroque sculptor who became well known in Rome, it is superbly painted and likely to be a commentary on the then debated relative merits of sculpture and painting.
This painting was bequeathed to the citizens of Christchurch in 1965 by architect Sir Heathcote Helmore, after whom Helmore's Lane in Merivale is named. Even though it can't be seen at home in Christchurch just now, we're pleased to share its magic.
- Jenny Harper
director
Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu
• For a free poster, go to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and tell them which is your favourite work in the "Angels & Aristocrats" exhibition.
The exhibition
"Angels & Aristocrats - Early European Art in New Zealand Public Art Galleries" is on at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery until July 28.
