The present work is an alternate version of the illustration that was published in William Combe's second volume of The English Dance of Death,
from the Designs of Thomas Rowlandson (1814-17). In the published version, the figure of death can be seen dragging away the seated patient while the doctors fight and argue.
The published version was also produced by Rudolph Ackermann as a print in 1816. The original print study is in the collection of the Huntington in California. it is likely that the present version was derived from the print that appeared in The English Dance of Death, which would date it after 1816.
William Combe's The English Dance of Death
Published by Rudolph Ackermann from his shop in the Strand, London, at a rate of three prints a month between 1814 and 1816, William Combe's The English Dance of Death belongs to the European tradition of the ‘danse macabre’, in which Death appears among people from all walks of life to remind them that that no level of wealth, status or power can protect them from the inevitable.
The work is a series of darkly comic episodes that satirise contemporary society, as a collection of doctors, lawyers, clergy, rich and poor, who, through foolish, greedy or vain behaviour, meet their end.
In the tale The Chamber War, from which the present image is inspired, the elderly and unwell Sir Samuel is attended to by three doctors who prescribe him various medicines. His nurse, however, believes that these are doing him more harm than good and substitutes her own home remedies. When the physicians discover what she has done, the scene descends into a mass
brawl. With the doctors and nurse distracted, Sir Samuel is hauled away by the figure of Death.
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