Of the many dozens of paintings Vasily Polenov produced, only a very few are not sources of light and and joy. This painting is one of them, simply titled, "The Patient." It is sometimes titled more simply, "Sick." It took Vasily thirteen years to complete this painting, returning to it again and again as the deaths of dear ones mounted up in his life.
While living in Rome the artist joined a small group of young art students. Today we'd say, they "enjoyed hanging out with each other." Elizaveta Boguslavskaya was one of those students, who knew Vasily only a short time before she developed Tuberculosis and died. One version of this painting's origin is that the young woman allowed Vasily to paint in her room while she lay dying. Then Marusya Obolenskaya, who Vasily met and fell in love with, died within the first year of their meeting. These two deaths impacted him deeply. His sorrow is expressed in this image. Here, we enter a sick room that is very dark, almost black. The death of a young person is particularly tragic.
While working on this painting, Vasily's twin sister, Vera, died. We feel tremendous loss viewing this painting. We are powerless before death and its inevitability. These days, doctors and nurses are exhausted physically and emotionally while caring for Covid patients. Hundreds of thousands of people are mourning the sudden loss of loved ones to this pandemic.
Here, we can see how wasted the young woman is by looking at her right hand hanging off the side of the bed. With anxious eyes, she looks over at the side table. But while we see the girl dying in dim light, Vasily has created an amazing still life by her side. On the table, covered with a tattered or fringed cloth, there is an oil lamp with a tilted green shade. It casts a soft yellow light on the pillows and an even more faint light on the girl herself. There are a few worn, stacked books on the table. Perhaps one is a prayer book, another, a book of poems. There is a carafe containing a curiously colored liquid and a glass of water with a spoon. The patient is so weak, she is only able to take water that has been put to her lips. There is a piece of folded paper. Has someone sent a note? Has someone written down the girl's last few words?
And who is that standing in profile behind the table, huddled with back to the patient, as if waiting in silence? Could it be the girl's mother or grandmother? Perhaps Vasily intended the figure to be symbolic of death itself.
In some ways this painting is from another world — from long ago. People don't often die at home anymore, but in hospice, nursing home or high tech hospital rooms. Catholics invoke St. Joseph as the patron of a happy death, which means a death where one is inwardly ready. And the prayer which every Catholic knows by heart from childhood, ends with the words, "Now, and at the hour of our death. Amen."
