This scene is from the nineteenth century, when most sick people were being cared for at home. A family member is reading to a convalescing young woman, while a nurse seen on the far right is bringing in the patient’s medicine, or more likely the meal, which she has probably prepared herself.

A girl reads to a convalescent while a nurse brings in the patient’s medicine. Watercolour by R.H. Giles. Wellcome Collection. (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Watercolor by R.H. Giles, a prolific but obscure artist who lived in Gravesend in Kent, and exhibited works at the Royal Academy and elsewhere for the fifty years from 1826 to 1876.

Spring 2020  |   Sections  |  Nursing