Love Sickness

Jan Steen completed this Love Sickness, a comic genre scene showing a young woman receiving a doctor's visit. The physician checks her pulse while knowing looks suggest her malady is romantic rather than physical. Steen's theatrical staging and knowing humor make the diagnosis clear to viewers.

Steen specialized in lively domestic scenes filled with moral wit. His paintings often functioned as visual proverbs, gently mocking human folly. This work hangs at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.