The hypochondriac [graphic]

"The patient sits in an armchair in profile to the left, in the centre of a well-furnished room. He wears dressing-gown and nightcap, his arms are folded and he stares fixedly, assailed by ghostly visions which float before his eyes, emerging from smoke-like shadows: a skeleton, Death, poised just above him, raises his arrow to smite. A corpse-like half length figure offers him a pistol and a halter. A spectre with webbed wings holds out a cup. Two staring and decapitated heads glare from the shadows which fill the room. A hand raises a sword; a man with a knife is about to be stung by a serpent. A naked body (half length) falls head downwards. Above these spectres is a man (left) driving a hearse (right to left) at full gallop and looking round at the Hypochondriac. Behind the patient a good-looking woman speaks confidentially to a doctor who meditatively sucks his cane. He is dressed in an old-fashioned manner, wearing a tie-wig. A table covered with medicines stands behind the patient, who seems unconscious of the other two. A money-chest beside him suggests that he is miserly. Two landscapes hang on the wall."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state