# The Sick Woman

- By: Jan Havicksz. Steen (Leiden, ca. –1679)
- Date: c. 1663 - c. 1666
- Medium: canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification: painting
- Dimensions: height 76 cm x width 63.5 cm
- Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam (A. van der Hoop Bequest)
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/SK-C-230--0df2a3aef123a06a24bd57df17b1923a)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://iiif.micr.io/PMpOJ/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Faint from fever, the young woman rests her head on a pillow. Is she perhaps lovesick? Is she pregnant? To find out, a quack would put a strip of his patient’s clothing in a brazier to smoulder – the scent would disclose her secret. Jan Steen here presents such a charlatan making a diagnosis. His old-fashioned attire characterizes him as a comic character.