A Visit to the Doctor

Thomas Rowlandson after Woodward

A Visit to the Doctor

London, Thomas Tegg, February 1^st. 1809

Etching

Original hand colouring

230 x 320 mm

Trimmed close to border

£280

An ugly decrepit old doctor, in old-fashioned dress and wig, stands with his back to the fire (right) receiving a pair of country-bumpkins, shown in by a servant out of livery, who stands at the door (left), grinning delightedly. The man, a burly fellow, is followed by his plainly-dressed and anxious wife. He says: “Do you see Doctor my Dame and I become [sic] to ax your advice—we both of us eat well, and drink well, and sleep well—yet still we be somehow queerish”. The doctor, holding his cane to his nose, answers: “You eat well—you drink well and you sleep well—very good— You was perfectly right in coming to me, for depend upon it I will give you something that shall do away all these things”. On the chimney-piece are jars and bottles with a bust of ‘Galen’, Against the wall is a heavy book-case with glass doors containing large volumes.