A tooth-drawer proudly holding up a tooth he has just extracted, the patient holding his face in the background. Mezzotint by Jan van der Bruggen after D. Teniers II, 167-.

Brux[el]l[e]s [Brussels] : Joa: Va: Bruggen fecit et excudit, [167?-?]

1 print : mezzotint ; platemark 26.8 x 19.2 cm

La dent que vous voyez, luy causa de la rage Estant ostée reprend le patient courage. En luy faisant du mal, je luy ay fait du bien, On dit quapres douleur un bonheur en revient. D. Teniers S.P. Joa: Aust: Pic a cubiculis ; Joa: Va: Bruggen fecit et excudit Brux[el]l[e]s

Léon de Laborde, Histoire de la gravure en manière noire, Paris 1839, p. 154 ("L'opérateur dans le genre de Teniers, Belle planche", with reproduction of Bruggen's monogram "JVB C.Pr.")

Charles Le Blanc, Manuel de l'amateur d'estampes, Amsterdam 1970, vol. 1, p. 530, Bruggen no. 36, "Le chirurgien. La dent que vous voyez D. Teniers. In fol."

Alfred von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, Vienna 1906-11, vol. 1, pp. 211-212, Jan van der Bruggen no. 35 "Der Bauernchirurg"

Wellcome Collection 600083i

Wurzbach, loc. cit., identifies Jan van der Bruggen, born in Brussels before 1648, with Johann van der Bruggen, active in Vienna and Prague in the early 18th century. However, the Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, vol. 14, Munich 1996, p. 501, says that the former was apparently father of the latter, was born about 1648-9 in Brussels, and published his own prints in Brussels in the 1670s: this is the scraper of the present mezzotint