Doctors Differ, by Henry Stacy Marks R.A., R.W.S., H.R.C.A. (1829-1898). 1864. Oil on canvas. 36 ½ x 28 inches (93 x 72 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of Sotheby's. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Doctors Differ was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1864, no. 326. It shows two physicians of the seventeenth century disputing the proper diagnosis and treatment of a patient. The modestly dressed woman in the background standing at the opening of the patient's bedroom and listening to the discussion of the doctors is presumably the patient's wife. The tall stout richly dressed doctor listens with an air of condescension to the opinion of his shorter, more plainly attired colleague. The arrogant physician wears a ruff collar around his neck as a symbol of his own wealth, social status, and authority. The patient is quite obviously a man of means judging from the architectural features and furnishings of his house.
The critic of The Art Journal focused on another of Marks's submissions to the Royal Academy exhibition mentioning only "The two other pictures by this artist, Doctors Differ (326), and The House of Prayer (584), though smaller in size, are choice in quality"(165). A reviewer for The Builder extensively reviewed and praised all three of Marks's submissions that year:
Mr. H. S. Marks may be of those who really do sigh after the good very old times, since he ignores things as he finds them, and insists that even with respect to bakers and blind pipers they must have fed and fasted, lived and died at least 300 years ago to be worth thinking about at all; and with so much quaint, dry persuasion in his argument, that one is half carried away by it to think with him. Of the three pictures he exhibits this year, only one, however, partakes of the comic. (326) Doctors differ, as he shows in stature, and implies in statute; the acumen with which the two professors are expounding their theories whilst practice is so much more needed is very perfectly indicated, and is a sharp satire. [371]
The Illustrated London News was taken with the humour inherent in this picture: "H. S. Marks works the comic vein, in which he turned up such a brilliant and genuine ore, and of which his Gargoyle Sculptor was the finest nugget, in Doctors Differ (326), where, as in Hogarth's last scene of the Marriage a la Mode, we see two doctors disputing while the patient is presumably in extremis; the lean one arguing with persistent volubility, the fat one looking down upon his brother with silent, but most arrogant and provoking distain" (479).
The critic of The Spectator praised the colour of the work:
Among the younger artists no one has made a greater advance this year than Mr. H. S. Marks. He exhibits three pictures, all remarkable for careful thought and expression, and for the reality of the persons represented and of their actions… Doctors Differ (326) is in the artist's more familiar vein of humour. Two doctors, one fat, pompous, and obstinate, the other lean and disputatious (a very Dogberry and Verges of medicine), would leave little hope of the patient's recovery were it not that the careful wife is at the sickman's door, and will help more by nursing than they by drugs. This picture is one of the best in colour that Mr. Marks has painted. [564]
Bibliography
British and Irish Art. Sotheby's, London, (December 10, 2014): lot 31. https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/british-irish-art-l14133/lot.31.html
"Fine Arts. Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The Illustrated London News XLIV (14 May 1864): 479.
"Fine Arts. The Royal Academy." The Spectator XXXVII (14 May 1864): 564-65.
"The Royal Academy." The Art Journal New Series III (1 June 1864): 157-68.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Builder XXII (21 May 1864): 371-72.
"The Royal Academy of 1864." The Saturday Review XVII (28 May 1864): 658.
Created 24 October 2023