The artwork is a typical
Leiden fijnschilders Dutch style "niche painting" of the 17th century. It depicts a figure (the physician) holding a bottle of orange liquid up to the light. A nosy maid or patient pokes her head around her basket to see what the physician (or, to the maid, her master) is doing. The theme is that of a common medical practice of
uroscopy, and this popular art subject is commonly called a "piskijker" in Dutch inventories. The physician is painted with the features of Dou himself, and another version is in the
Kunsthistorisches Museum. The relief below the window of
children by Francois Duquesnoy was one that Dou repeated for many of his “niche paintings.” The open book is Andreas Vesalius' '
De human corpora fabrica illustrated by Vesalius and Stephan von Calcar, of the school of Titian, and published in 1543. File:Dou Arzt 1653@Kunsthist. Museum Wien.jpg|Version in Vienna File:De dokter, objectnr A 11845.tif|Version owned by
Étienne François, duc de Choiseul ==References==