Art on My Mind: Sir Luke Fildes's The Doctor

Sir Luke Fildes, one of the Victorian social realists (along with Hubert von Herkomer and Frank Holl) who painted scenes of poverty and struggle in late 19th-century England, painted The Doctor (exh. 1891, Tate Collection, London) following the death of his son. The painting, however, celebrates the heroism of the dedicated country doctor. Despite the melancholy of the picture--watchful doctor, prostrate child, hovering father, collapsed mother, dark and poor interior--the child is showing the first signs of recovery as the morning light peeks into the room.