ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Rembrandt’s doctors

Philippe Abastado¹ and Denis Chemla²

¹ Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Service du Pr Fabiani, Histoire de la Médecine, Université René Descartes, Paris, France
² Hôpital de Bicêtre, Université Paris Sud 11, EA 4046, Service de Physiologie, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, Paris, France

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr P Abastado
Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, 56 Avenue Kléber, 75116 Paris, France; philippeabastado{at}wanadoo.fr

Medical doctors appear in numerous Rembrandt paintings and reciprocally, physicians interested in art have used their diagnostic skills in dissecting the painter’s work, especially his lifetime of self-portraits. The possible existence of skin and eye diseases, hypothyroidism and Horton’s disease, and psychiatric and psychological traits has been a matter of everlasting debate, as summarised in the present paper. Most of all, the ageing process reveals itself over time in the continuity of the self-portraits. In the quest for signs of illness, the slightest bump in the canvas can be considered a symptom, and the examination of Rembrandt’s self-portraits is a difficult exercise. However, the resulting published papers have given rise to a great number of diagnostic hypotheses.

Keywords: medicine and art; medical diagnosis; rembrandt; ageing; self-portrait

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Abastado, P., Chemla, D. (2008). Lives of the artists. Age Ageing 37: 605-605 [Full Text]