Satire on Physicians

Jean-Antoine Watteau made this biting satire of medical practice, depicting doctors as pompous figures surrounding a suffering patient. The scene mocks the elaborate costumes and dubious treatments of early 18th-century medicine. Watteau, who suffered from tuberculosis and died young, had personal reasons to distrust physicians.

Though famous for his dreamy fêtes galantes, Watteau could turn his brush to sharper social commentary. This Rococo master influenced generations of French painters with his delicate touch and subtle psychology. The painting hangs at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, far from its French origins.