Heerschop remained his complete career active in his native Haarlem.

Modern scholars refute the idea that he might have been a pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, though he was clearly influenced by the master or by his earlier Leiden pupils, especially in this subject of an elder scholar or doctor at work. 

 

Uroscopy, the examination of urine, was a popular diagnostic testing method during the 17th century.

 

 

Dutch painter

Haarlem 1626/27 – 1690 Haarlem

 

Painter and engraver of genre scenes and of historic (especially religious) subjects.

 

Pupil of the still life painter Willem Claesz. Heda in 1642.

In the past it was thought that Heerschop had spent a few years in the 1640s in Amsterdam, studying under Rembrandt.

 

Heerschop became a Master in the Painter’s Guild of Haarlem in 1648.

 

 

Physicians were usually represented holding a urine flask. Seventeenth century painters and patients must have thought of uroscopy as a positive factor giving faith in the physician’s ability to diagnose and prescribe.

Doctors would have been looking for blood or pus or other symptoms of disease. The colour, clarity and consistency of urine would be analized. Some doctors would actually even taste the patient’s urine; sweet urine would indicate diabetes. In those days urine could also be used to perform a (dubious) pregnancy test. A ribbon would be dipped in the patient’s urine and then burned … .

 

 

Because this conversation piece gives you insight in a doctor’s practice over 300 years ago.