[1] The work has been identified as "a unique example from the Edwardian period of a depiction of a medical examination of an upper-class male patient".

"[2] I locate in the figure of the patient signifiers of the complex and sometimes conflicted identity of Lambert as an Australian expatriate artist living and working in London in the early twentieth century.

[2] The Observer critic noted that the work "represents an auscultation scene, which is made the excessively unpleasant excuse for the truly masterful painting of a male torso" while The Athenaeum critic wrote that it "must be praised for the mordant humour with which a pompous gentleman is depicted keeping up his dignity in difficult circumstances".

[2] When later displayed in Australia, Lamberts friends noted that "the subject provided a splendid opportunity for the presentation of nudity" although the painting is not strictly a nude.

[1] Recent critics have described the painting as a "bravura work in which [Lambert] displayed his considerable ability in depicting naked flesh".