The Dropsical Woman

Gerrit Dou's Dropsical Woman from 1663, in the Louvre, is one of the masterpieces of the Leiden fijnschilder school and among the most expensive paintings sold in the seventeenth century. The subject of a physician examining a patient for dropsy carried layers of meaning—medical, moral, and allegorical—in Dutch culture. Dou's extraordinarily meticulous technique, which reportedly required him to grind his own pigments to achieve maximum smoothness, made his works the most highly prized in the Dutch art market during his lifetime.

Dou's technique achieves an almost supernatural smoothness, with invisible brushwork that creates an enamel-like surface. The rendering of the sick woman's pallid complexion, the doctor's concerned expression, and the precisely detailed domestic interior demonstrate the pinnacle of fijnschilder craftsmanship.