Harvard Art Museums

The Invalid

Edward Lamson Henry

Date

c. 1868-1870

Medium

Oil on panel

Culture

American

Department

Department of American Paintings, Sculpture & Decorative Arts

Institution

Harvard Art Museums

Edward Lamson Henry’s sentimental, idealized images of middle-class life helped return a sense of normalcy to a country torn apart by conflict. The Invalid portrays Henry’s ailing fiancée, Kate White, of Philadelphia, who died in 1868. Filled with fresh-cut flowers, fruit, and cakes, and flooded with sunlight, the painting looks less like a deathbed scene than a portrait of a woman reclining in a well-appointed interior. The bottles of medicine on the nightstand are the only indication of White’s fate.

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