The Lovesick Maiden
ca. 1660
Jan Steen masterfully captures the drama of 'lovesickness' in this lively 17th-century Dutch scene. A distressed young woman clutches her head while a doctor checks her pulse, clearly diagnosing her with a broken heart rather than a physical ailment. Meanwhile, a grinning suitor lurks behind her, and a sleeping dog in the corner seems completely oblivious to the romantic chaos unfolding. Steen was famous for these humorous genre paintings that often hid moral lessons about the follies of human nature right in plain sight.
Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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