Albertine in the Police Doctor's Waiting-Room is regarded as Krohg's principal work as a social painter.

The painting touched upon the taboo subject of sexual life, and led to a heated debate among his contemporaries.

[1] The painting was placed in a "hut" (Norwegian holiday home built in wood, often rather large) for nearly twenty years, until it was eventually sold.

[2] Krohg had created several earlier paintings based on the fate of the unmarried seamstress "Albertine", who is eventually forced into prostitution by the social system of the time.

Other related paintings are Daggry from 1880 (at Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen), Sypiken from 1881 (at Göteborgs Konstmuseum), and Trett from 1885 (at the National Gallery in Oslo).