The convalescent
(Convalescente)
(1884)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
81.7 × 117.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of William Dean Esq., 1885
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Despite the optimistic title of this work, the iconography suggests a gloomy prognosis. The dying autumn leaves on the vine and the falling petals on the rose tree by the window both signify approaching death as the young woman looks out from her sickbed. The window is opened to cath the last of the autumn sun. A rosary lies by the pillow perhaps implying hope or confirming the woman's faith in the face of death. In a period of high mortality from tuberculosis or through complications in childbirth, the female invalid facing an untimely death remained a favourte genre sublect in the 19th century.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in brown paint l.r.: francis TATTEGRAIN / ETAPLES
Accession Number
p.310.8-1
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Dame Carol Colburn-Grigor CBE through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Architecture Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
ill (people) illness repose (activity) treating (health care function) windows
Frame
This frame, thought to be contemporary with the painting, is in a Louis XIV revival, Barbizon style. It is composed of composition ornament on a wooden profile with burnished and matt gilding.
It is a style of frame that appears on a number of paintings in the collection across a relatively wide period, see for example the frames on Gustave Dore, Little Red Riding Hood (Le Chaperon rouge) c.1862, (1061-5), and John Singer Sargent, Hospital at Grenada 1912 (1337-3), which retains the makers label of C. M. May.
Frame Details
Framemaker
Unknown - 19th century
Date
1884
Materials
timber, composition, gold leaf
Frame Condition
losses in the composition ornament
Dimensions
117 x 150 x 12 cm