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A Sickly Young Woman Sits Covered Up on a Balcony; Death, a Ghostly Skeleton Clutching a Scythe and an Hourglass, Is Standing Next to Her; Representing Tuberculosis

Richard Tennant Cooper (1885–1957)

Wellcome Collection

A Sickly Young Woman Sits Covered Up on a Balcony; Death, a Ghostly Skeleton Clutching a Scythe and an Hourglass, Is Standing Next to Her; Representing Tuberculosis

© Wellcome Collection. Image credit: Wellcome Collection

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Tuberculosis (TB) of bones or lungs is a disease affecting young as well as old, causing exhaustion, fever, wasting and early death. The disease was very common in England around 1912 when Henry S. Wellcome commissioned this allegory of tuberculosis. It shows an emaciated young woman sitting on a balcony overlooking a Swiss or Italian valley. She does not have much more time in which to enjoy the beauty of this world, as Death grips her hand and tells her that it is time for her to depart.

Wellcome Collection

London

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Title

A Sickly Young Woman Sits Covered Up on a Balcony; Death, a Ghostly Skeleton Clutching a Scythe and an Hourglass, Is Standing Next to Her; Representing Tuberculosis

Date

1912 (?)

Medium

watercolour, gouache & pencil on paper (?)

Measurements

H 41.7 x W 45.5 cm

Accession number

24009i

Acquisition method

commissioned by Henry S. Wellcome, c.1912

Work type

Watercolour

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Wellcome Collection

183 Euston Road, London, Greater London NW1 2BE England

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Artist or maker

Richard Tennant Cooper

1885–1957

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