[Physician's role in Norwegian art of painting]

The author reviews paintings of doctors by Norwegian artists. Many interesting pictures have been painted, especially during the era of naturalism at the end of the last century. The artist and journalist Christian Krohg contributed to an early discussion of the role of the doctors in connection with social problems in Norway. In the 1930s, Finn Faaborg illustrated the relation between doctor and patient in the case of tuberculosis, and Carl von Hanno revived the problem of prostitution. Bendik Riis, himself a psychiatric patient, with his huge painting Castraktion, shows his fear of castration and lobotomy, and also his opinion of the health authorities' lack of respect for the patient. Norwegian painters have obviously contributed to a fruitful discussion of the role of the doctor in society.