Antique Print-PORTRAIT-HERMANUS BOERHAAVE-Houbraken-Wandelaar-c.1780

Portrait of Hermanus Boerhaave (1668-1738), a Dutch botanist, chemist, Christian humanist, and physician of European fame. He is regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital and is sometimes referred to as “the father of physiology,” along with Venetian physician Santorio Santorio (1561-1636). Boerhaave introduced the quantitative approach into medicine, along with his pupil Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777) and is best known for demonstrating the relation of symptoms to lesions. He was the first to isolate the chemical urea from urine. He was the first physician to put thermometer measurements to clinical practice. His motto was Simplex sigillum veri: ‘Simplicity is the sign of the truth’. He is often hailed as the “Dutch Hippocrates”.

Made by Jacob Houbraken after Jan Wandelaar.

Medium: Engraving on hand laid (verge) paper.

Sheet size: 34.6 x 26.6 cm (13.62 x 10.47 inch). Image size: 23 x 15.7 cm. (9.06 x 6.18 inch).

Condition: good, given age. General age-related toning and/or occasional minor defects from handling. Please study scan carefully.

PORTRAIT-HERMANUS BOERHAAVE | PORTRAIS – MISC

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Source: unknown, to be determined.

Biography engraver: Jacobus Houbraken (1698-1780) was a Dutch engraver and the son of the artist and biographer Arnold Houbraken (1660?1719), whom he assisted in producing a published record of the lives of artists from the Dutch Golden Age.

Biography artist: Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759) was an 18th-century painter, illustrator and engraver from the Northern Netherlands.