works

Galleries and Reading Room

Library

Wellcome Café

Wellcome Kitchen

Wellcome Shop

Wellcome Collection will have reduced opening hours from 10am to 5pm from Tuesday 21 until Sunday 26 June, due to disruption caused by industrial strike action affecting UK transport networks. We apologise for any inconvenience caused during this week. 

We’re undertaking research with website visitors to find out some more about you and what you thought about your visit. This survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete. Thank you for your time!

What brought you to our website today?

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 56.5 x 46.8 cm

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

Left, the physician holds up the urine brought by a woman who stands in the centre with her arms crossed. On table, book inscribed "Libe[r] Hipocr" (i.e. book of Hippocrates). Left and right, apprentices carrying out chemical operations. In the background, a surgical scene

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 62 x 65.5 cm, lined on to canvas 64 x 67 cm

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting by a follower of Gerard Thomas.

The teachings of Hippocrates (5th-4th century BC) lie at the heart of traditional Western medicine. The painting shows a 17th-century physician consulting a book of Hippocrates to aid him in making a diagnosis when examining a flask of the patient's urine. Elsewhere in the room, pharmaceutical and surgical operations take place

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 69.5 x 87.6 cm

A physician examining a urine flask. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 62.7 x 81.5 cm

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting in the style of Gerard Thomas.

In the centre of the picture a physician or natural philosopher holds up a flask of urine which the woman standing nearby has brought to him in the wicker basket which she holds on her arm. In traditional western medicine, examination of urine was the commonest method of diagnosis.
The painters Gerard Thomas (1663-1720) and Balthasar van den Bossche (1681-1715) continued at Antwerp the tradition popularised by David Teniers the younger (1610-1690), of showing chemists, apothecaries and physicians in the setting of a room designed as the museum or laboratory of a scholar. His paintings often include folio-size books of the works of Galen or (less frequently) Hippocrates. No such books appear to have been printed in the southern Netherlands in the seventeenth century, though some were printed at Lyons. At the time when Gerard Thomas was working, they would have been very old-fashioned. The fact that they appear in these paintings presumably means that they were still respected by the public

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 86 x 120.5 cm

Interior with a physician examining a urine flask. Oil painting attributed to Gerard Thomas or Balthasar van den Bossche.

The interior of a large L-shaped room containing alchemical and pharmaceutical equipment, a Roman sculpted bust, and a fish suspended from the ceiling (features of the museum of a curioso). Centre, a table on which are an oriental rug, a celestial globe, a drug-jar, a document with a seal, and a large folio volume open to show the heading "LIBRI GALEN I DE MEDECINA" and letterpress in double-column
Left, a physician of the savant-type, dressed in a fur-lined gown, seated at the table, holds up a urine-flask in his right hand, and turns to look at it. Left, behind him, a young woman (presumably the bearer of the urine) and an older woman (perhaps her "chaperone"). Right foreground, an apprentice brings a pharmacy-jar towards his master. In the back-ground, four men performing alchemical and/or pharmaceutical operations at a kiln. Apparatus is littered all over the floor. A dog scampers in the left foreground

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 68.4 x 85.5 cm

A physician sitting before a table, holding a urine flask, with two women, a boy and several other figures in the room. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 46.5 x 56.5 cm

A capriccio of medical scenes. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

In a large room, on the left a man seated at a table turns to the right to look up at a flask of urine which he holds in his left hand. In the centre stands an elaborately dressed lady, presumably having brought the urine for diagnosis. Behind them, a nurse holds a young child (the lady's child?). On the right, an archway joins the room to a hallway in which is a staircase leading up to the first floor: at ground floor level in the hallway a surgeon performs an operation (perhaps a tooth extraction) on a seated patient. In the right foreground two boys: one plays with the lady's dog (its ruff is made from the same material as the bows on her shoes), while the other kneels to apply bellows to a brazier for pharmaceutical procedures
The man holding the urine-flask wears a fur-lined robe. The paraphernalia around him identify him as a medical and surgical practitioner, apothecary, chymist, scholar of natural history and philosophy, collector of objects of virtù. The table, left, is covered with a Turkey rug, and holds books, pharmacy jars, a shell, an elaborately sculpted vessel, and the wicker basket in which urine flasks were carried. Pharmacy jars and alchemical apparatus stand on the window sill, right, and on the ground in front of the table, along with books, papers, a mortar placed on a tripod carved with ram's heads, a horse's skull, a string instrument and shells. Left background, a chimney supported by a caryatid and a telamon, with above a large framed painting of hounds attacking a boar in the style of Frans Snyders or Paul de Vos. Many other furnishings and pieces of equipment are shown

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 81 x 115.5 cm

A physician-virtuoso in his cabinet, examining a flask of urine brought by a lady. Oil painting by a painter in the circle of Gerard Thomas, early 18th century.

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 70.5 x 87 cm

An alchemist in his laboratory. Oil painting by or after B. van den Bossche or G. Thomas.

Right, the physician examines the urine. Left of him, a woman raises a hand to scold a younger woman who holds a wicker basket for carrying the urine flask. Left and right, apprentices carrying out chemical operations. Far left, an arch and an open window; far right, a country scene or a tapestry of a country scene

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 59.5 x 72 cm

Wellcome uses cookies.

More filters

Active filters:

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting by a follower of Gerard Thomas.

A physician examining a urine flask. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting in the style of Gerard Thomas.

Interior with a physician examining a urine flask. Oil painting attributed to Gerard Thomas or Balthasar van den Bossche.

A physician sitting before a table, holding a urine flask, with two women, a boy and several other figures in the room. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

A capriccio of medical scenes. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

A physician-virtuoso in his cabinet, examining a flask of urine brought by a lady. Oil painting by a painter in the circle of Gerard Thomas, early 18th century.

An alchemist in his laboratory. Oil painting by or after B. van den Bossche or G. Thomas.

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

Stay in the know

Wellcome collection

Finding us:

Opening times:

Today's opening times

Wellcome uses cookies.

Search the collections

More filters

Active filters:

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting by a follower of Gerard Thomas.

A physician examining a urine flask. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting in the style of Gerard Thomas.

Interior with a physician examining a urine flask. Oil painting attributed to Gerard Thomas or Balthasar van den Bossche.

A physician sitting before a table, holding a urine flask, with two women, a boy and several other figures in the room. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

A capriccio of medical scenes. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

A physician-virtuoso in his cabinet, examining a flask of urine brought by a lady. Oil painting by a painter in the circle of Gerard Thomas, early 18th century.

An alchemist in his laboratory. Oil painting by or after B. van den Bossche or G. Thomas.

A physician examining a urine-flask. Oil painting by Gerard Thomas.

Stay in the know

Wellcome collectionWellcome Collection

Finding us:

Opening times:

Today's opening times

Wellcome collection