THE CONVALESCENT.

Photos: Jonathan Russell.

  • Title(s): The Convalescent (Tate).
  • Description: A woman shown from the waist up, eyes closed, head resting on her right hand, a small bunch of flowers in the other. She is wearing dark clothing, a green shawl and white headscarf, background an extensive landscape with a lake and mountains in the distance. The woman has dark marks on her eyelids (apparent in 1929 Royal Academy Illustrated when painting c. 40 years old, underpaint leaching?).
  • Media: oil on canvas (Tate).
  • Dimensions: “support: 571 x 635 mm frame: 793 x 840 x 130 mm” (Tate).
  • Signature/date/other text: no signature or date on visible canvas.
  • History:
    • c. 1887 – Tate.
    • 1929 – Exhibited Royal Academy, 1929; in Royal Academy Illustrated for that year.
    • 1929 – Presented to the Tate Collection by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest. Tate.
    • 2018-2019 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019.
    • 2022 – Exhibited Tate Britain, November 2022, “Spotlights: Annie Swynnerton”.
  • Location: Tate.

“This work and The Dreamer … are part of a series of paintings of contemporary working-class Manx women that Swynnerton produced around 1887. For these works she made direct studies of real landscapes”. (Notice by painting while on exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019.)

A note by the painting when on display at the Tate in November 2022 suggests that the yellow flowers are “ragwort… the Manx national flower”. However, according to the Isle of Man government web site, ragwort only became identified as such in the early twentieth century.

The model used may have been the same woman as in The Dreamer and Manx Maid. All three works are dated 1887. (Thanks to Alastair Swinnerton for the observation.)

Page last updated 15 Oct 2025.