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Genre painting is a style of painting that depicts scenes from everyday life. Sometimes genre paintings depict calm interiors, as seen in the works of Johannes Vermeer. In other examples (like this one), genre paintings criticize or joke about an aspect of daily life. The art of genre paintings was developed during the Dutch Golden Age. Many of the paintings created during that era reflect the cultural, economic, and scientific domination of the Dutch.
In this comical scene, the artist portrays an attentive dentist, a smiling woman, and a patient writhing in pain while gripping a rosary. The dentist is shown wearing clothing that is overly theatrical, exposing him as a fraud. Part of the amusement of this work is the patient’s clutching of the rosary. As a result of the Reformation, the Dutch population was largely Protestant. They would have considered the patient’s trust in his rosary beads to be foolish.
Jan Miense Molenaer was a Dutch Golden Age genre painter. He is considered to be a predecessor to Dutch painter Jan Steen. Both artists created works that were intended to show the amusement of common situations.
Molenaer shared a studio with his wife, Judith Leyster, who was also an artist. She painted genre scenes, still lifes, and portraits.
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