The Doctor, by Sir Luke Fildes

Dimensions: 35" x 26" framed

Sir Luke Fildes's popular masterpiece, The Doctor was commissioned by Henry Tate in 1887, since then the image has been used in many different forms. The United States and Britain put it on postage stamps, political cartoonists lampooned it, and the American Medical Association used it in a campaign against socialized medicine. The Dittrick has a print of an engraving, published in 1893 by Thomas Agnew & Sons, and printed in London. There are different stories about the origins of the painting. The most likely is that Tate gave Fildes the freedom to choose the subject matter himself. Fildes eldest son, Phillip died Christmas morning, 1877. He was attended by Dr. Murray, who impressed Fildes greatly with his care and attention to his dying child. The painting has a happier ending than real life did, as the child has survived through the night and dawn is breaking. Fildes chose his subject matter immediately, although the painting was not begun for four years, and then only with urging from Tate. Another version has Queen Victoria ordering the painting to commemorate the service of her own physician, Sir James Clark who she was said to have sent to care for a servant's sick child. Fildes went to great lengths to achieve realism in this painting, by constructing the cottage scene in his studio in London, and painting at dawn to catch the unique character of dawn light. Fildes is well known in the context of the social realist movement depicting the plight of the poor, his painting Applicants for Admission to the Casual Ward was so popular police had to keep back the large crowds of onlookers. Fildes was also a talented illustrator whose work appeared in magazines and books, most notably Charles Dickens's last book Edwin Drood. Fildes like most painters of his era made most of his income from painting portraits for wealthy clientele, but he made the most impact with social pictures.