Thomas Rowlandson

Medical Dispatch or Doctor Doubledose Killing Two Birds with One Stone

9½ x 14 inches

We are in very familiar Rowlandson territory with this saucy etching. A corpulent doctor is visiting an elderly patient who looks to be on her last legs. The multi-tasking doctor takes her pulse whilst devoting the bulk of his attention to the altogether more appealing daughter (or serving girl) standing behind the chair. The doctor's free hand has already found its way up onto her shoulder and the pair gaze into each other's eyes in an adoring manner. Oblivious to the seduction scene behind her, the elderly lady has the choice of either opium or composing draught to ease her pain. Rowlandson cannot resist adding a 'medical staff' pointing upwards from the doctor's crotch, an indication of his ardour and impending arousal.