 Fildes was paid £3,000 for the work, a sum he felt was too small for such a painting and less than he expected for painting portraits.Two Victorian doctors, Dr Thomas Buzzard (neurologist) and Dr Gustavus Murray (obstetrician), have been particularly associated with the painting, as has the genre of the period in which it was painted.Fildes had the particular desire "to put on record the status of the doctor in our time".