Géricault's Paintings of the Insane

Author(s): Margaret Miller

Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , Apr., 1941 - Jul., 1942, Vol.
4, No. 3/4 (Apr., 1941 - Jul., 1942), pp. 151-163
Published by: The Warburg Institute

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/750413

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 GERICAULT'S PAINTINGS OF THE INSANE

By Margaret Miller

In his catalogue raisonn6 of Gericault's works, Charles Clement' lists five por-
traits of the insane which he says were part of a series of ten, painted by
Gericault between 1821-24.4 for his friend Dr. Georget, alienist on the staff
of the Salpetriere hospital.2 He adds that Georget survived Gericault only
for a short time,3 and that at his death the pictures were sold in two lots of
five each, one to Dr. Marechal who took them to Brittany where they were
lost sight of, the other to Dr. Lacheze. The last group is fully described by
Clment:

Monomanie du commandement militaire. (P1. 36a) Homme coiff&

bonnet de police, avec une medaille de commissionaire de police pe
sur la poitrine portant le no. 121. Il est en manches de chemis
une draperie grise sur l'Cpaule. Traits reguliers, expression d'energ
Monomanie du vol des enfants. (P1. 36b) Homme avec un vet
gris; sur la tete une sorte de toque de meme couleur; le front arr
l'ceil doux et caressant.6
Monomanie du vol. (P1. 36c) Homme vetu d'un habit vert
intelligente avec une expression d'audace et de perversite.6
Monomanie du jeu. (P1. 36d) Vielle femme a l'air absorbe et stup
Elle est coiff6e d'un mouchoir blanc et tient une b quille.7
Monomanie de l'envie. (P1. 37a) On nommait cette femme la Hy
Elle est coiff6e d'un bonnet dont le fond est de couleur avec des g
barbes blanches. Visage convulsif, affreux, yeux injectis.8

In subsequent Giricault literature, nothing has been added to

This paper was originally prepared for
the Dr.
latter left the Salpetribre to assume the
Walter Friedlaender in connection with a directorship of the hospital of Charenton, he
course of lectures delivered by him atput thehis own private hospital in the joint
charge of his nephew and Georget.
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
I am further indebted to Dr. Meyer Schapiro 3He actually survived him by four years.
for his valuable criticisms made during the
Clement seems to have confused the coinci-
dence of his dying at the same age as
revision of the paper. Dr. Wind's helpfulness
in the preparation of the article for the G6ricault
press with his dying in the same year.
exceeded that of an editor, and I have greatly
4Cklment, No. 155, now in the collection
of Oskar Reinhart, Winterthur.
profited by his suggestions and judgment.
5Cl6ment, No. 156, now in the collection
XCharles Cl6ment, Giricault, 1879of
(3rd
Dr. Leo Gerstle, New York, formerly
edition), p. 317. collection of the Duc de Trevise.
2ClIment calls him erroneously "m'decin6ClIment, No. I57, now in the Museum of
Ghent.
en chef de la Salpetribre." During Georget's
7ClIment, No. 158, Louvre, formerly
period of service at the Salpetribre, that posi-
collection of the Duc de Trevise.
tion was first held by Pinel, then by Esquirol,
Georget's teacher and friend. In 1825 when
8C16ment, No. 159, Museum of Lyons.
ISz

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 152 MARGARET MILLER

material, and Clement's reputation for

such that the statements have never been
In the interpretation of the pictures t
the sensationalism of the subject ma
hibited in 1887, Maurice Hamal reviewing
expressed his horror at these represent
bestialit6,"2 when actually the Monom
five troubled faces which shows any fer
rendered within the expressive range
different character from the truly in
Capriccios for example. The same tenden
in the persistent reference to the Ghen
although Clhment clearly indicates t
dominated by a much more trivial obse
When the pictures have been discusse
'Clement's informant does not seem to Gericault" in Bulletin des Musdes du France,
Ioe ann6e, No. 4, 1938.) Though he con-
have had first hand knowledge of the circum-
siders the inclusion of the portrait in the
stances under which the pictures were made,
for not only does he refer inaccurately Georget
to group, Solonge concludes that it is
Georget's position in the hospital (seemore p. I51,
likely a portrait of a peasant painted by
n. 2), but he makes an error in the date of on a sojourn which he reputedly
G6ricault
Georget's death (see p. 151, n. 3). His passed
dating in the Vend6e.
of the pictures is likewise hesitant: they Portrait
are of a Woman, Eissler Collection,
the last entries in the catalogue divisionVienna.
which (H. Cadinouche, La Me'decine dans
covers the three years before the painter's
l'oeuvre de Giricault, Paris dissertation, 1927,
p. 34). This picture was first published by
death, 1821-24. Though it is still impossible
to fix an exact date for the pictures, Paul the
Fechter, Kunst und Kiinstler, XI, 1913,
p. 273. It is mentioned as one of the portraits
period may be narrowed to the years 1822-23.
G'ricault was in England until the spring
of theofinsane by H. Tietze, L'Amour de l'Art,
1822, and he may have begun his work for
1925, p. 179.
Portrait of a Youth, Smith College Museum
Georget soon after his return to Paris before
the first horseback accident which precipi- of Art, Northampton, Mass. Cited as one of
tated the series of illnesses which make it so the missing five pictures in the exhibition
catalogue Sources of Modern Art, edited by
difficult to date any of his last works (Oprescu,
Gdricault, 1927, p. 162). He was bedridden James S. Plaut, Institute of Modern Art,
most of 1823 and died in January, 1824. Boston, I939, P- 49.
Clement believed this last illness to have Without conclusive archivistic evidence or
begun in February, but Regamey (Giricault, the corroborative opinion of a professional
1926, p. 46), on the authority of an entry psychiatrist,
in it seems imprudent to attempt
Delacroix's journal, contends that he to
wasextend the number of the Georget portraits
active and comparatively well at least until
beyond the five cited by Cl6ment, for here the
May. Oprescu (loc. cit.) has pointed out that
art historian is in the position of a lay jury-
the sitters are too heavily dressed to have
man, ill-equipped to distinguish between an
posed in the summer. It follows thatacute the normal emotional disturbance and a
genuinely deranged state of mind.
pictures must have been painted between the
autumn of 1822 and May 1823. 2Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1887, Vol. 35, P.
Tentative attempts have been made256. to
identify the lost pictures purchased by Dr.3LUon Rosenthal, Giricault, 1920; Raymond
Mar6chal with several undocumented G6ri- R6gamey, Glricault, 1926; G. Oprescu,
Giricault, 1927; Duc de Tr6vise, "G6ricault"
cault portraits on formal or psychological
grounds. in The Arts, XII, I927; Michel Florisoone,
"La folle de G6ricault" in Bulletin des Musdes
Le Vendien recently acquired by the Louvre.
(R. D. Solonge, "Le portrait du Vendeen
de par
France, Ioe ann&e, No. 6, 1938.

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 36

a-G6ericault, "Monomanie du commandement b-G6ricault, "Monomanie du vol des enfants."

militaire." Winterthur, Oskar Reinhart Coll. New York, Leo Gerstle Coll. (p. 151f.)
(p. 15If.)

c--G6ricault, "Monomanie du vol." Ghent,d--G6ricault, "Monomanie du jeu." Louvre

Museum (p. I5If.) (P. I5If.)
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 GeRICAULT'S PAINTINGS OF THE INSANE 153
been regarded only as additional evidences of G6ricault's preoccupation
violence, and are usually associated with his studies of cadavers from t
charnel houses and decapitated heads from the prisons,' or as a final statem
of his increasingly realistic view of the world around him.3 No notice
been taken of the historical novelty of portraying insane people with
fidelity and sympathetic restraint.
Heretofore, madness, however accurately reported by painters, had m
frequently been interpreted in terms of demonic possession, or occasion
witchcraft.3 In much rarer instances the insane have been represented
phenomena of the every-day world without religious or fantastic association
In such cases the insane are depicted in behaviour which deviates w
from the norm, and their possessive excitements or patent eccentriciti
exposed with the unmindful intrusiveness of a modern photographer.
But Gtricault, in his paintings of Georget's patients, interprets insan
not in terms of behaviour, but as a state of mind, which, though disor
and clinically classifiable, emphasizes rather than obliterates individua
The patients are painted as normal portraits, the genre most appropriat
the study of human personality. Gdricault, respectful of the sensibilities of
sitters, tactfully represents them in no specific environment, such as a hos
room, which might betray their segregation from normal society, and
particular action which might dramatize their disease and so isolate th
from the experience of the average spectator. The sitters, conscious of
artist, anxious to appear at their best, by their pose, their choice of clo
and their manner of wearing them, impose on the painter their idea of the
selves. Hidden in the 'likeness,' in the colour of the skin, the eyes, the v
are the pathological 'emblems' of their malady which are only for the
chiatrist to read. To the layman their abnormal state of mind can only
deduced from their physical bearing and the disquietude of their faces.
establishment of the insane as understandable individuals was not accom-
plished exclusively through the insight of the painter, but was as closely
dependent upon the conceptions of his time as were the victims of demonic
possession portrayed so frequently in the religious art of earlier periods.

Within the brief span of Giricault's life (1791-1824) the position of the
insane in France, particularly the indigent insane, was radically improved.

xCf. Oprescu, op. cit., p. ioi. 4For example Brueghel's "Dancers of St.
2M.G., "A propos de G6ricault" in LeGuy," a drawing of epileptic dancers in a
Progris Midical, 1920, No. 20; L0on Rosen-landscape, Albertina, Vienna (J. M. Charcot
thal, "G6ricault et la mndecine," in Le Progrisand Paul Richter, Demoniaques dans l'Art,
Mddical, suppl6ment illustr6, 1924, No. 4, PP. Paris 1887, pp. 34-38), Hogarth in the last
25-26; H. Cadinouche, La Midecine dans print of the "Progress of the Rake," Goya in
l'euvre de Giricault, Paris dissertation, 1927. the series of paintings and drawings made at
the asylum at Saragossa (A. L. Mayer,
SSee Brueghel's painting of a legendary
witch, Dulle Griet, in the Mayer van den Bergh
Francisco de Goya, London 1924, P. 57, Pls.
Museum, Antwerp. Reproduced in P1. I 15, 401, 402; also nos. 694, 695 in the cata-
XXXIV, Charles de Tolnay, Pierre Brueghel logue of paintings and nos. 519, 520, 522,
l'Ancien, Brussels, 1935- 523 in the catalogue of drawings).

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154 MARGARET MILLER
From an extra-social class with few legal an
formed into a special class of citizens no
charity, but toward whom the state recog
In pre-revolutionary France criminals,
indiscriminately confined, often together
neglect.2 Movements for hospital reform
reports of the investigators were often sh
of public scandal, and neither funds nor
effect the recommendations of the invest
persisted, particularly in the ancient ove
airless wards there were as many as six pa
beds, contagious mixed with the unconta
the dying. Though there were private ret
pay for their own care, the poor could be
men in one ward which provided ten large
patients, and the women in another whe
small beds for thirty-two patients.4 Thos
to this treatment were sent with certificates
were women, or to Bicitre if they were me
chained like prisoners and received no me
One of the first acts of the revolutionary
Comitd de mendicit6 established "pour
la protection et ' la conservation de la c
principes de justice decrites dans la ddc
dans la constitution."'7 Special provision
which assured free medical treatment for a
"qui ne doit tre avilh ni par le nom, n
After an exhaustive investigation of the
programme which, in effect, transformed t
to patients. Among the specific reforms
restraining chains, a bed for every case, a
and occupations suitable to the intelligenc
The committee further proposed that an
case, describing symptoms and treatme
annie de nouveaux faits, de nouvelles obse
et varides, deviendra pour la science et
source de richesses."9
These reforms were put into effect chiefly through the efforts of Philippe

xEtienne Esquirol, "M6moire sur le 3Ibid., p. 222.

nombre des fous," in Mimoires de l'academie 4M. Tenon, Memoires sur les h6pitaux de
royale de mddecine, I, I828, p. 40. See, also forParis, 1788, pp. I36-7.
the following, Leon Mac-Auliffe, La Revolution 5Ibid., p. 212.
et les HOpitaux (Annees 1789, I790, I791), 6Le Comte de Mirabeau, Observations d'un
Paris, I901; Sigismund La Croix, Actes de laVoyageur Anglais sur la maison de force appellie
Commune de Paris pendant la Revolution, III, Bicitre, 1788, p. 8.
1895; Leon Lallemand, La Revolution et les 7La Croix, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 269.
Pauvres, Paris, 1898. sLallemand, op. cit., p. 46.
2Mac-Auliffe, op. cit., pp. I2I-I22. 9Mac-Auliffe, op. cit., p. I4I.

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 GIRICAULT'S PAINTINGS OF THE INSANE I55
Pinel,1 "le bon monsieur Pinel" who later, as director of Bicdtre and t
Salpitriere, revolutionized the therapy of the insane. Pinel and his colle
were acutely aware of the revolutionary character of their new profess
opportunity, and current conceptions of liberty and individualism took
specific meaning for them. One of Pinel's first acts as director of Bic'tre w
release his patients from their chains and cells. When he wrote of it late
emphasized the political implications of that action. "In lunatic hos
as in despotic governments, it is no doubt possible to maintain by
limited confinement and barbarous treatment the appearance of order
loyaty. . ... A degree of liberty (in a hospital) contributes in most
stances to diminish the violence of the symptoms and in some to
relieve the complaint altogether."2 Large parts of the psychiatric literature
of this period were devoted to the so-called "moral therapy" which
comprised all the psychological factors involved in the treatment of the
patients such as exercise, occupations, entertainment, increased social life
in the hospital, all with the purpose of restoring to the patient as many of
the privileges of normal life as possible.
In an historical sense many of these ideas were not innovations, they were
revivals of classical knowledge.3 Pinel was of an "encyclopedic" turn of
mind in the sense of Voltaire, a good linguist versed in both ancient and
modern languages, and it was not until he was twenty-six that he began the
study of medicine. Then it was the theoretical or literary side of the pro-
fession that attracted him, and in the course of his studies he became familiar
with ancient medical literature. Like his Greek and Graco-Roman predeces-
sors, he regarded insanity as a "natural," not a "spiritual" problem, and
their observations formed the basis of his own theories.4
Pinel was of David's generation and occupied a position rather analogous
to him as the head of a large group of alienists who grew up under his tutelage

xRen6 Semelaigne, Philippe Pinel et chiatric

son literature in the introduction to the
ceuvre, Paris diss., 1888. See also E. Pariset,
Trait6 midico-philosophique, op. cit. Here he
Histoire des membres de l'Acadimie royaleallies
de himself with the empirical tradition of
Hippocrates as opposed to the scholastic
Midecine. (Receuil des 6loges, Tome I) Paris,
1850. See further Paul Basquet, Les bio- systematics of the followers of Galen. He
graphies midicales, November, I927, pp. I97-also pays special tribute to the work of a few
208; 213-224. provincial doctors in England, Scotland,
Holland and France, who, at the end of the
2Philippe Pinel, Traiti midico-philosophique
eighteenth century, achieved remarkable
sur l'alidnation mentale, Paris, an IX (I8oi);
here quoted after the English translation, success in the treatment of insanity, though
unfamiliar with contemporary or historical
A Treatise on Insanity, published in Sheffield
medical literature (p. xliii). He presents at
in I 8o6, p. go. The second French edition was
published in Paris in 1809. length the ideas of his English contemporary,
3"La riforma di Pinel nel trattamento Crichton, citing from the latter's An Inquiry
degli alienati preconizzata in Italia dal into the Nature and Origin of Mental Derange-
Vasala, Daquin e Chiarugi, non e che un ment, London, 1798.
ritorno agli antichi precetti dei medici Semelaigne (op. cit., p. I7) credits Pinel
greci e romani." Cf. Pietro Capparoni, Ilwith having introduced to French medicine
Sanitario delle Puglie, Basilicata, e Calabria, VII,the work of the school of Edinburgh, particu-
no. 34, I decembre, 1927, passim. larly through his translation of Cullen's
4See Pinel's resumd of the history of psy-Institutions of Medecine (1770) in 1785-

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156 MARGARET MILLER
at the Ecole de Midecine. One of the most act
who was in charge of the clinic for mental a
Georget, in his turn, worked under Esquiro
assistant until his death at Gdricault's age,
three doctors in terms of generations was
Gdricault.
* * *

Georget's histo
parable to G'ri
astonishing in i
of originality, e
The son of a fa
inadequate early
Ecole de Midecin
papers. The pub
age of twenty-f
year it was foll
the brain,3 wri
fession as much
was made memb
Like G'ricault h
subject to occas
caf6 near the h
une passion fo
most of his time
call of the phy
"I1 doit &tre san
variations de le
qu'ils ont faites
continually con
When Le Nouve
new advances in
O0n Esquirol,
stirungen, Frei bearbeitet von Karl see
Christian Hille.
membres.Nebst
de l'Acadim
einem Anhange kritischer und erlduternder
des Eloges, Tome II), 1850. See further Zusdtze von J. C. A. Heinroth, Leipzig, 1827.
Rene Semelaigne, Qyuelques pionniers de la 20n Georget see Semelaigne, Quelques
psychiatrie avant et apris Pinel, Paris, 1930; and pionniers. .. cited above. See also the follow-
Basquet, op. cit., October, 1927, pp. 131-192.ing obituary notices on Georget: Amad6e
Esquirol's main work, Des Maladies Mentales,Dupeau, in Revue midicalefranfaise et itrangere,
considerles sous les rapports medical, hygienique et 1828, p. 334; Raige-Delorme in Archives
mddico-ligal, Paris, 1838, comprises articles ginerales de la midecine, xvii, 1828, pp. 154,
which were written over a period of twenty- 315; Clinique des h6pitaux et de la ville, Paris,
four years, the earliest being dated I814. Ac- 1-4, 1827-29, pp. 3o6, 346.
cording to Pariset, loc. cit., the edition of 1838 3Traitd de la Physiologie du systkme nerveux,
was the first. It appears, however, that a1821.
German translation and critical edition of 4Semelaigne, Quelques pionniers . . . op. cit.,
p. 189.
Esquirol's collected papers had already been
6Georget, De la Folie, 1820, p. 287.
published in 1827 under the title Allgemeine
und specielle Pathologie und Therapie der Seelen-

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 GeRICAULT'S PAINTINGS OF THE INSANE 157
mental and nervous diseases to write. These included Enciphale, Epilepsi
Folie, Hystire, Suicide, and Libertd Morale, the latter dealing with the medic
legal problems of monomaniac homicides, a subject which occupied
attention for the last four years of his life.' He argued for the legal protecti
for this type of monomania which he considered "exclusive du crime," as
that such persons should be granted not acquittal instead of hanging, b
medical asylum and care. Though simple and unpretentious in his mann
he defended his own convictions with assurance and was outspoken
impersonal in his criticism of ideas and practices which he consider
hindrance to the advance of psychiatry as a science. When the occas
demanded it, his tact and discretion could give way to the directness of
typical frondeur: "L'injustice et la bassesse seules le revoltaient; il ne mesu
plus alors la violence ni la port6e de ses coups."2
His growing professional reputation did not bring him the hospi
appointments which his ability deserved. This was attributed by one of
friends, Raige-Delorme,3 the editor of the Dictionnaire de la Midecine, to
unconciliatory temperament.

Il avait dans son caractere, comme dans son talent, trop d'independen
pour parvenir a ces postes iminents. Toutes les avenues qui y conduis
lui etaient fermies. Les opinions hypocrites de l'dpoque durent repouss
un homme qui les avait fronddes dans plus d'une occasion.

In his Physiologie des systdmes nerveux in 1821 Georget had denied

existence of an immaterial power in or outside of man:

Ennemi puissant de ces subtilites m&taphysiques qui ont si longtem

entrav6 la marche des sciences d'observation, il rejette avec force
causes occultes, ces principes substantiels, distincts de l'organisme, d
tant des physiologistes ont abus6 pour expliquer les phenomenes des 6t
organises ... il poursuit et saisit avec sagacite les rapports des ph6nome
vitaux avec les conditions organiques qui peuvent y correspondre, seu
connaissances qu'il est permis B un physiologiste d'atteindre.4

This materialistic view according to Raige-Delorme was attacked wit

bitterness and intensity which approached persecution.5
In 1820 he developed the first symptoms of tuberculosis, another att
came four years later and he died of that disease in 1828, after a long ill
in which the faults and inadequacy of his accomplished work were m
acutely evident to him in the realization that he would have to abandon
and more important projects. As a favourite student of Esquirol's, he li
in his house as a member of the family from the time he left medical sc
until his death.

'Georget, Examen midicale desprocds criminels 2Raige-Delorme, op. cit., p. 328.

1825; Discussion midico-legale sur lafolie, 1826; 3Ibid., p. 322.
Nouvelle discussion midico-legale sur la folie, 4Ibid., p. 337.
1827. 6Ibid., p. 328.

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158 MARGARET MILLER
It is unfortunate that no account of the
Georget and Gericault exists. But since Ger
medical profession it is possible perhaps to
stances of their meeting. Savigny, a surviv
and one of the authors of the pamphlet
himself a surgeon in the service of the Marin
was frequently in his company during I81
his great picture. In his exacting reconstru
the harrowing days spent on the raft, Gdr
in such subjects as delirium and hallucinat
pamphlet and in a separate study2 how many
insane the second night, from fear, hun
these men on the officers was one of the
paratory drawings for the painting, thou
moment when the rescue ship was finally
vivors. The studio he rented especially to
near the Beaujon hospital where he mad
internees through whom he obtained the
for the picture.3 He might have met Geor
doctors or Savigny, or a Dr. Biet for who
Even before he moved from the rue des M
painted a study of the head of a robber wh
Georget's last illness caused him to aban
De la Folie which had been out of print for s
work that the Gericault portraits of his p
engraved as illustrations for the book itself.
At this period there was a growing in
possibilities of physiognomic diagnosis w
number of Paris dissertations written bet
of the face in illness and health.6 Esquiro
appreciate the usefulness of physiognomi
published in 1838 under the title Des mala
twenty-seven engraved portrait drawings
cussing them in the text Esquirol adds:
des alicnes n'est pas un objet de futile cur
le caractere des idees et des affections q
malades. Que de resultats int6ressants n'
etude. J'ai fait dessiner plus de 200 alikne
un jour publierai-je mes observations sur c
1J. B. Henri Savigny, Delabigne-Duchamps,
Alexandre Corr6ard, 181 3;
JVaufrage de la Miduse, Lavenez,
Paris,Leurs,1817. Tordeux, 1815; RozP,
2Savigny, Observation sur Sureau,lesPigarche,
efets i820; de Simon,
la faim 1822. For
complete
et de la soif eprouvds apris titles see Index
le naufrage Catalogue
de of the Library
la frigate
du Roi 'La Miduse' en 18of16, Paris
the Surgeon 18 Office,
General's 18. United States Army,
3Oprescu, op. cit., p. zo ff.
Washington D.C., XI, 1890, pp. 239-243.
7Des Maladies Mentales, op. cit., II, p. 167.
4No. 96 in Cl6ment's catalogue.
From the
6Les Supplicids, C16ment, No. article
Io5. on mania originally pub-
lished in 18i8.
6Cabuchet, i8o0; Hamin, 18o9; Langet,

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 GIRICAULT'S PAINTINGS OF THE INSANE 159
It is clear from the character of the drawings and from Esquirol's comments
on them that both Esquirol and the artists he employed understood the
problem of portraying the patients solely as routine graphic documentation.
The illustrations bear only the signature of the engraver, Ambrose Tardieu,
and in but two instances does Esquirol consider the artist of sufficient import-
ance to mention his name in the text.' One of these is the drawing of a family
of idiots (P1. 37d), which was executed four years after Gericault's death by
the teacher of Ingres, "M. Roques de Toulouse." Esquirol refers to him with
an enthusiasm which hardly seems justified by the quality of the drawing as
"aussi distingud par son talent que honord par son caractbre."2
It was not accidental that Gdricault should have been the first artist of
reputation and the only artist of exceptional gifts to bring his creative sensi-
bilities to bear on a task which had previously been entrusted to mechanical
executants, or that he should have been willing to work in a pedestrian genre
of design which an artist of the Ecole would have considered unworthy of the
art of painting. For though Roques, following Gericault's example, willingly
collaborated with Esquirol, it is certain that his pupil, Ingres, would have
recoiled with horror at a similar proposal from Georget. Ingres had been
emphatic in his condemnation of the Medusa: "Est-celd ce que la peinture,
la peinture saine et morale a la mission de representer?"; and proposed its
removal from the Louvre: "Je ne veux pas de cette Miduse et de ces talents
d'amphitheitre qui nous ne montrent de l'homme que le cadavre, qui ne
reproduisent que le laid, le hideux: non! je n'en veux pas. L'art ne doit
etre que le beau et ne nous enseigner que le beau."3
It is precisely Gericault's unorthodox idea of le beau,4 and his more supple
conception of la morale5 that fitted him so uniquely for his collaboration with
Georget. He was further qualified by having previously made studies of
pathological physiognomy on his own initiative. For as documentation for
the Medusa picture, he had studied in the wards of Beaujon hospital "toutes
les nuances de la douleur physique" and had collected a whole dossier of
observations.6
Whether it was Gericault or Georget who decided that their physiognomic
portrayal of the insane should take the form of posed portraits it is impossible
to say. Most of the Esquirol drawings are either profile busts, or unposed full
length studies, depicting the patients in straight-jackets, restraining chairs or
against the background of a hospital interior. The only drawing which bears
1Esquirol (op. cit., I, p. 334) mentionsmade of Le Brun were incorporated into the
Desmaison as the artist of a drawing of anfinal picture. For a full account of the inci-
epileptic, reproduced in P1. I of his book. dent see Oprescu, op. cit., p. 103.
2lbid., II, p. 356. 5Compare Ingres' point of view with the
3Henri de Laborde, Ingres, sa vie, ses advice of the great Scottish anatomist Charles
travaux, sa doctrine ... Paris, 1870, pp. 166-67, Bell: "If madness is to be represented, it is
cited by Oprescu, op. cit., p. 126. with a moral aim, to show the consequence
4When Gericault was working on the of vice and the indulgence of passion." (The
Medusa, he encountered by accident his friend, Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression as con-
Lebrun, who had been reduced to a living nected with the Fine Arts, London, 1883, 7th ed.,
corpse by an attack of jaundice. G6ricault'sp. 162; first ed. I8o6.)
first words of greeting were "Ah! mon ami! 6Cl0ment, op. cit., pp. 130-I.
que vous etes beau." The studies which he

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 i6o MARGARET MILLER

any resemblance formally to Giri

of a victim of demonomania (P1.
is the only one mentioned by Es
artist, her co-operative interest aris
be given to the archbishop.' From
are dressed, it may be assumed th
pictures were to serve, they ma
diversions for the patients themselv
By conceiving of Georget's pat
individual personalities, Gericau
documents required for an alienis
thus to synthesize both the objec
insight which, through the science
in the lives of hundreds of haples
and the Restoration.

In spite of the fact that Georget's writings previous to Gericault's death

contain no case histories, and therefore no specific analysis of the cases
Gdricault painted, many passages from Georget's article on insanity, reprinted
from the medical dictionary in 1823, are pertinent to the pictures and provide
some clues to the substance of the conversations between the painter and
doctor, and to the programme upon which Gdricault worked.
Madness is considered by Georget as a particularly modern dilemma,
dependent largely upon progressive social developments:

Le nombre des alienes a di^ s'accroitre dans plusieurs pays, en raison

du developpement et de l'activitd des facultis humaines, qui ont gagnd,
depuis un demi-siecle environ, les degres moyens et infirieurs de la societd,
en raison des interets divers et puissants qui ont occupd les hommes de
tous les rangs, des evenements et des decouvertes de toute sorte, qui ont
fix6 l'attention publique, des chocs des passions vehementes qui ont
ebranl6 profondement certains 6tats."'

It is not considered as an indication of social or racial decadence, but the

cruel exaction of the most energetic and progressive human activities.

Ainsi la folie est particulibrement commune dans les pays libres, chez
les peuples agitds par les factions et les partis, soumis " des commotions

1Esquirol, op. cit., I, pp. 497-98. The and the same essay of I8I4 appear, it can be
account of the posing is given in the case established that this drawing is the posed
portrait of case H. See Esquirol, Allgemeine
history of patient H. Through some historical
confusion Esquirol refers to P1. VI of und his spezielle Pathologie, op. cit., p. 531.
2Georget, De la Folie, ou alidnation mentale,
illustrations (P1. 36c in this article) as a profile
extrait du dictionnaire de m6decine, Paris,
portrait of case L. However, by comparison
with the German edition of his collected
1823, PP. 7-8.
papers in which the same drawing (P1. VIII)

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 a--G6ricault, "Monomanie de l'envie." b-David, "La Maraichere." Lyons,
Lyons, Museum (p. 15If.) Museum (p. 163)

c-A. Tardieu, Engraving for d-A. Tardieu, Engraving for Esquirol's Maladies Menta
Esquirol's Maladies Mentales
(p. i6o)

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 GERICAULT'S PAINTINGS OF THE INSANE t6t
politiques violentes qui bouleversent tous les 6lments de la socit&~, A
des r6volutions qui compromettent tous les int6rts .. . dans les contrCes
ravag6es par des guerres multiplides; chez les nations 6clairdes, indus-
trieuses, commergantes; en un mot, cette maladie na^t et se multiplie avec
les circonstances qui excitent vivement l'attention, activent l'esprit, et
mettent en jeu toutes les passions de l'homme.'

He adds that there were few cases of insanity under political despotism
or controlled religion or where there are large masses of ignorant people,
comparing 14 cases of insanity in Cairo, a city of 300,000, to 7,000 cases in
London and 4,000 in Paris in I8I5-
Gericault had painted victims before: the retired magistrate, Fualdes,
whose assassination filled the newspapers in 1817;* the Medusa survivors,
victimized by the stubborn negligence and utter callousness of Bourbon
officials; but these were instances in which the destructive forces were clearly
evil. Here the destructive forces work more subtly and insidiously, and the
pathetic element of the portraits is stronger since the causes of the dilemma
are by their virtues unassailable. In analysing the various causes of insanity,
Georget describes the temperaments most susceptible to its attack:

Ils se sont fait remarquer par des travers dans l'esprit, un manque
d'aptitude "a l' tude des sciences exactes, un gouit desordonne pour les
arts d'agrement et les productions de l'imagination, des iddes originales,
une conduite singuliere. .. .3

all qualities particularly understandable to a romantic artist. It is not an

accidental coincidence that Gericault was frequently referred to as "ce fou
de Gericault,"4 for then as now such epithets were used figuratively to con-
demn any departure from the currently accepted norms of perception,
thought or behaviour. Gudrin even criticised one of Gdricault's atelier studies
as "le travail d'un insense."5

Like the artist the insane differ from the normal man in the intensity and
often in the singleness of their feelings.

Chaque penchant, chaque passion, peut dominer l'entendement;

joie, la tristesse, la crainte et la frayeur, la colhre et l'emportement, l
ruse et la mechancete, l'orgueil et la vanite peuvent se manifester ave
force, avec violence, avec perseverance.6

Georget throughout his work shows an understanding and a kind

admiration for the emotional capacity of his patients. Intensity was con
sidered by the Romantics the most important qualitative factor in any pe

1Ibid., p. 8. 3Georget, op. cit., p. 14.

2Duc de Tr6vise, "G6ricault, peintre des4Cl6ment, op. cit., p. 262.
actualiti6s," Revue de l'Art, 1924, Vol. 45,
5Rosenthal, op. cit., p. I7.
p. 300. eGeorget, op. cit., p. I8.

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 162 MARGARET MILLER

ception or feeling; and since Gdric

et passione en tout"' he could be
monomaniac subjects, particularl
never found in the normal face.

La physionomie est souvent tres expressive et indique assez bien la

nature du desordre mental. La joie, le contentement, la crainte, la

tristesse,
nomie chez le
les desespoir .,.. toutes
alienes comme chez les ces passions
individus ont leursilssignes
raisonnables; sont sur la physiog-
seulement beaucoup plus prononcis chez les premiers parce que les
passions qui font le caractere du ddlire, agissant continuellement et avec
force, doivent laisser des traces plus profondes.2

This passage, by explaining how the habitual passions leave their traces
in the human face, implies the distinction between two forms of facial anima-
tion: mimical expression which conveys a transient emotion through the
movements of the facial muscles, and physiognomic animation which is
permanently present in the traces left by passions that have become habitual.
The former corresponds to the method expounded by Le Brun in his famous
Confirence ... sur l'expression gdndrale etparticuliere (1689). In a mimical represent-
ation of insanity all the features would be enlisted into a single expression
which, once isolated, would be exaggerated to convey a single emotion at its
greatest intensity. Though Gericault had previously made studies of this
type,3 depicting normal manifestations of such emotions as despondency,
terror; supplication, he did not follow this method in his portrayal of Georget's
patients. For being portraits, they are more than tWtes d'expression, and their
facial animation is truly physiognomic. The faces as they appear in the
portraits, are not attentive, active, but unrested, preoccupied and, with the
exception of the Monomanie d'envie, passive. They are receptacles of feelings,
not mirrors of responses. The impression they give is not one of intense
singleness, but of an accumulation of past feelings too strong or too habitual
to be effaced by sleep or distractions.
Just as the Giricault pictures reveal his subjects in all the understand-
ableness of their dilemma, without a touch of perverse relish in the sensation-
alism of his subject, so does Georget correct popular misconceptions of the
insane and emphasize the comparative normality of their life and conduct.

Les descriptions que l'on a faites de la folie sont souvent exagerees.

Aussi on se fait ordinairement une strange idee de l'existence des alienes;
on s'imagine les voir sans connaissance, continuellement agites, violents,
furieux, ou dans un &tat de melancolie sombre et taciturne, toujours

xDr. Veron, Memoires d'un bourgeois de Paris,
Paris, 1856, I, p. 269, quoted by Oprescu,
op. cit., p. I68. This judgement of G6ricault
is not original with Dr. VWron. He has only
reduced to an epitaph Delacroix's own recol-
lections of the painter. For the full text from
Delacroix's manuscript see Paul Flat, Journal
de Eugene Delacroix, Paris, 1893, 4th ed., I,
p. 6o note.
2Ibid., p. 19.
3Cldment, op. cit., p. 356, n. 131.

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 G~RICAULT'S PAINTINGS OF THE INSANE 163
inspires par de mauvais desseins . . . on est donc agreablement surpris en
parcourant les divers quartiers habitis par ces malades, de rencontrer des
individus qui ont pour la plupart conserve l'usage des sens et des mouve-
ments volontaires, quelquefois presque en totalit6, l'exercice regulier de
l'intelligence, dont le sentiment de la conscience et du moi conserve
beaucoup de force et d'dtendue, qui voient et regardent, entendent e
icoutent, gocitent et savourent . . . qui ont des idees, des passions, des
determinations volontaires; qui sont accessibles ta la joie, ta la honte,
a la colkre, 'a la frayeur, g l'amour.,. qui observent souvent avec leurs
commensaux tous les egards, toute la politesse, toutes les convenances d
la societ. .. .
It is Gericault's insistence on the sentiment du moi in the portraits which
relates them so closely to La Maraichere (P1. 37b), attributed to David, and
to the Revolutionary portrait in general.2 The Monomanie d'envie, according to
Georget's interpretation is the penalty exacted by the forces that liberated
La Maraichkre,3 just as the Monomanie du commandement militaire is the price
incurred by the heroic Napoleonic militarism of which Gdricault himself was
such an enthusiastic partisan.4

1lbid., p. 31. participated in the September massacres in

2For a discussion of the Revolutionary I792. She went insane when the popular
portrait see Milton Brown, The Painting of the societies were suppressed under the Direc-
French-Revolution, no. 8, Critics Group series, torate. There is, however, no question of
New York, 1938, pp. 87-92. identifying her with the Monomanie de l'envie,
G6ricault professed great admiration for for she died before the G6ricault portraits
the work of David (Oprescu, op. cit., p. Io6) were painted.
and in 182o David reports a visit paid to him 4Under Napoleon there was a marked in-
in his exile by G6ricault and Horace Vernet: crease in monomania of military command-
"M.M. Horace Vernet et G6ricault... m'ont ment. Cf. L. F. Calmeil, De la Folie considere'e
ravi de joie par leur pr6sence. Ils sont venus
sous le point de vue pathologique, philosophique,
a Bruxlles dans l'intention de m'embrasser.
historique et judiciare depuis la Renaissance . . .
Nous avons bu A la sant6 de ceux de mes jusqu'au dix-neuviime sidcle, Paris, 1845, II, p.
61&ves qui n'ont pas refroidi pour moi 124.leurCalmeil was a pupil of Esquirol and a
attachement filial ..." (From a letter tomember
the of Georget's circle. (I owe my know-
painter Schnetz quoted by Regamy, op. ledgecit., of this important work to Dr. Meyer
p. 38.) Schapiro.)
3One of the Salpetriere cases described and In one of his courses at the Ecole de Midecine,
illustrated by a portrait drawing in Esquirol's Esquirol delivered a lecture in which he
Des maladies mentales (op. cit., I, pp. 445-51), illustrated the history of France from the Fall
was that of Th6roigne de M6ricour, known of the Bastille to the Restoration by means of
also as "T6roenne," a famous courtesan who the case history of one of his patients. Es-
took an active part in the popular uprising quirol, "Mimoires sur le nombre des fous," op.
during the Revolution and is reported to have cit., p. 38.

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