The sick child in art.

Abstract

There are at least 12 paintings from the late 17th to the early 20th centuries titled, 'The Sick Child'. They were painted by well-known and obscure artists from Holland, Norway, France, England, Spain, North and South America. Most depict infants, and some older children, always in their homes, most with the mother at the bedside. The Sick Child paintings are a window into the human condition before hospital treatment was the norm, and childhood illness and death were an experience common to almost all families. They depict the mother-child bond of love and protection, complex human emotions, and the hardship and vulnerability of children and families of those eras. There remains a role for art in health and medicine, even in the 21st century.