Jacob de Beaulieu opererend voor een groep chirurgijnen

About this artwork

verzamelaarsmerk, verso, gestempeld: Lugt 2228

Art Historical Context

This etching by Pieter van den Berge captures a remarkable moment of early modern medical practice. Created between 1699 and 1737, the print shows the celebrated French lithotomist Jacob de Beaulieu demonstrating a surgical procedure before an attentive group of fellow surgeons. Van den Berge, active in the Dutch Republic during the late Baroque period, specialized in detailed etchings that brought contemporary events and professional demonstrations to a wider audience. Etching was particularly well suited for such subjects, allowing fine lines and clear anatomical details to be reproduced affordably and distributed among medical students and collectors. The scene reflects the growing professionalization of surgery in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when public operations served both as teaching opportunities and as displays of skill. Measuring nearly 30 centimeters in height, the print bears the collector’s stamp Lugt 2228 on its reverse, indicating it once belonged to a distinguished European collection. Today it offers viewers a vivid glimpse into the intersection of art, science, and spectacle in the early Enlightenment.

About the Artist

Pieter van den Berge · 1669–1769

Pieter van den Berge (1659–1737) was a Dutch draughtsman, printmaker, and publisher whose long career spanned the late Dutch Golden Age into the early 18th century. Born in 1659, likely in Amsterdam, van den Berge worked as an engraver, visual artist, editorial curator, and draughtsman during a period when Dutch printmaking was transitioning from the heights of the Golden Age into new commercial a...