Dental engravings created after works by Adriaen Brouwer: 17th century Flemish genre artist.

Adriene Brouwer (1605/6-1638), a Flemish genre and landscape painter, was prototypical Bohemian. An artist who lived and acted with disregard for conventional rules of behavior, he produced works which often shocked the staid citizenry of his times. This article examines two dentally-oriented etchings crafted by Brouwer. "The Operation" portrays separate scenes in which two lowly tradesmen--a chiropodist and a peasant toothdrawer--are simultaneously at work in the opposite ends of the same room. A second etching, "Peasant Doctoring the Foot of Another Peasant", accentuates the edentulous facial features, both of the suffering patient and of the operator.