The COVID-19 Convalescent Project
The Little Convalescent, Eastman Johnson. 1873-79. Collection of MFA Boston.
The seed of a new art project
As someone who has dealt with their own health crisis, I feel a particular solidarity with the suffering that is happening right now during COVID-19. And as a painter, I have been searching for a way to visually express this historic moment. I am about to embark upon a collaborative art project - one which I will share with you shortly!
During my research for the Painting During a Pandemic blog posts, I was reminded of a popular subject among 19th Century artists, the “Convalescent”. Merriam Webster defines convalescence as “to recover health and strength gradually after sickness or weakness”.
Growing up my mother (who was the daughter of a ENT cancer surgeon) would always advise me “Don’t push yourself too soon - you are “convalescing”. The term convalescence has fascinated me ever since, and so I have been particularly drawn to these 19th Century paintings.
A common thread among these paintings is of resting, as if hitting the pause button on life. The majority are not somber. They are peaceful and contemplative reflections of a moment in time.
Le Convalescent, Carolus - Duran. Circa 1860.
The subject of convalescing got me thinking about all the people who are dealing with COVID-19 at this very moment and especially those who fall into a category that they are calling “long-haulers”. Those who are baffling doctors with their extended convalescence of months of recovery. People that are suffering from long-term symptoms such as memory loss, tiredness, shortness of breath, chest tightness and pain, headaches, muscle pain, and heart palpitations. CNN television journalist, Chris Cuomo includes himself in this category.
The COVID-19 Convalescent Project
As I mentioned earlier, I am embarking upon a collaborative art project involving possibly, you and me. And this is where you come in!
If you or a family member is now or has been sick with COVID-19, I would like to document your particular experience convalescing with paintings created in the same spirit as these 19th Century examples. I want to create a modern day counterpart to these paintings because this specific moment in time, the COVID-19 Pandemic, needs to be documented for the historical record and because your particular experience matters. But I need your help to do it.
I am looking for submissions of photos of you or your family member’s recovery, Your day to day experience. I will be looking for submissions that I can build upon and make art from. I do not plan on copying every last detail of your pictures but instead composing from your images and improving upon them. For instance, this could mean altering the architecture of a room of adding or taking away objects, changing the color of clothing, etc. - in order to build and expand upon the overall design and composition.
suggested subjects?
You or your loved one resting in bed or on a couch
You or your loved one reading or engaged on your phone/ipad while resting
Doctors visits, waiting rooms
Tender moments that strike you during your/their recovery
PRIVACY
As a realist painter I do hope to use you or your family member’s likeness in the paintings, but I also want to respect your right to privacy and will not use your names or geographic locations in the titles if you prefer it.
SUBMISSIONS
I am looking for images that meet the following criteria:
Clear photographs with good lighting
No nudity please :)
Candid shots, not posed
Natural expressions, not “say cheese” grins
Those who are chosen as subjects will receive an original sketch of their photo. In order for me to work from your photo, I ask that you sign a release allowing me to make artwork from your photo/likeness and grant me the permission to exhibit the paintings when they are completed. As the creator, I will own the artwork and the copyright. The paintings will be available for sale at a later date after they have been exhibited as a body of work.
Will you become my muse? Allow me the opportunity to elevate your experience into a painting of perseverance. It would be an honor to be entrusted with your story. And I will approach it will all due reverence & sensitivity.
Submissions can be emailed to me Suzanne@lagoarthurstudio.com. Please spread the word and share this post! I am hoping for submissions from far and wide of people of all ethnic and social backgrounds in order to document as much as possible this global experience.
Thank you in advance for your support of this project!
-Suzanne
The Convalescent, Helene Schjerfbeck. 1888.
The Convalescent, James Tissot. 1872 Collection of AGO Ontario, Canada.
The Convalescent, John Gwen. Circa late 1910s to mid 1920s.
Painting & Living During a Pandemic
Painting & Living During a Pandemic: Part 1
I keep hearing in the news, especially among sports news outlets that this pandemic year will go down as the “*” asterisk year. But in my mind I have been thinking about it as the “Abandoned Year”. The year that all of us had to drastically alter our lives to protect ourselves and our communities from the unspeakable. Living through a Pandemic such as Covid-19 makes it easier to preoccupy ourselves with the “now” and not necessarily in the good sense. We think more in terms of what we are missing out on in our daily lives.
But for me it helps to look back on history and see how our ancestors handled similar crises. Another passion of mine is genealogy. And genealogists know that if they encounter a death of loved one during the years of 1918 and 1919, it was most likely due to the so called “Spanish Flu” (unfairly attributed to the Spanish who were the only ones cataloging the deaths due to Influenza during WW1 because they were neutral in the War). Such a revelation in one’s family tree is not as uncommon as one would think. It got me thinking about how as an artist I can express my own grief over this period in a body of work and such soul searching led m to ask, “What kind of work was made as a result of the Spanish Influenza?”. It turns out there is quite a bit.
As difficult as it is to see and read about how people are suffering today and how they suffered in 1918, I know from personal experience that a health crisis can often awaken you to your higher purpose. Today is the 2nd anniversary of my surgery to remove a very large benign brain tumor which you can read more about here. Luckily I am well past that now and so when I look upon these images of Pandemics, I see much more than suffering. I see perseverance and transformation.
The paintings shown in the introduction are by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. The larger one is his self portrait painted while he himself had the Spanish Flu in 1919. Notice how gaunt he is, what he is wearing and the bed in the background - suggesting that this is most likely how he spent most of his days. I personally love the palette of this painting and its thinned out color wash application. The smaller image painted in the same year is his self portrait after his recovery.
Egon Shiele, “The Family” 1918.
The artist most closely associated with the Spanish Flu was the Austrian Egon Schiele. In 1918 Schiele was at the top of his art career (he appears above in this 1918 self portrait with his young family). Tragically, he would first lose his mentor, the artist Gustav Klimt and then his beloved wife and their unborn child to this pandemic (she was 6 months pregnant in this painting). Schiele himself perished from the disease only 3 days later at the tragic age of 28, on October 31, 1918.
The following drawings are both documentations and heart breaking portraits of his wife Edith Schiele and Gustav Klimt. The former drawn while she was dying, the latter drawn posthumously.
Egon Schiele, Portrait of his wife
At this point you may be asking what could possibly be the transformative moment that came after the Spanish Influenza? Here is the moment where I can finally give you a little encouragement - it was none other than the “Roaring 20’s”, a period of tremendous growth and widespread prosperity in North America, Western Europe & Australia. That my friends is our silver lining. We can get through this difficult period and be better for it as a society because we have done it before.
Join me next week as I continue exploring this theme of “Painting and Living During a Pandemic”. I will share with you what I have been up to since we all went into lockdown in March.
Thanks for the visit. Stay healthy & happy!
-Suzanne