THE DISCOVEF OF THE ART Q •THE INSANE
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The Discovery of the Art of the InsaneThe Discovery of the Art
of the Insane
JOHN M. MacGREGOR
Princeton University Press / Princeton, New Jersey
Copyright " 1989 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street. Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press. Oxford All Rights Reserved This book has been composed in Linotron Century Schoolbook Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources Printed in the United Stales of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in -Publication Data MacGregor, John M. (John Monroe) The discovery of the art of the insane / John M. MacGregor.
p. cm.. • Based on author's thesis (Ph.D.)—Princeton University, 1978.
Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-691-04071-0 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-691-00036-0 (pbk.l 1 Art and mental illness—History. I. Title. RC455.4.A77M33 1989 616.89—dcl9 88-37986 First Princeton Paperback printing. 1992 98765432
To the memory of my father
CHARLES EDWARD McGREGOR
List of Illustrations ix Preface xvii Introduction 3
one. The Confrontation: The Artist and the Madman 11 two. The Physician and the Art of the Patient 25 three. Georget and G6ricault: The Portraits of the Insane 38 four. Jonathan Martin of Bedlam 45 five. Insanity in the Context of Romanticism 67 six. Cesare Lombroso: The Theory of Genius and Insanity 91 seven. Paul-Max Simon and the Study of Psychiatry and Art 103 eight. Victorian Bedlam: The Case of Richard Dadd 116 nine. William Noyes and the Case of "G" 142 ten. The Chicago Conference 151 eleven. Marcel R6ja: Critic of the Art of the Insane 161 twelve. Hans Prinzhorn and the German Contribution 185 thirteen. The World of Adolf Wolfli 206 fourteen. Expressionism and the Art of the Insane 222 fifteen. Psychoanalysis and the Study of Psychotic Art 245 sixteen. Psychosis and Surrealism 271 seventeen. Dubuffet and the Aesthetic of Art Brut 292
Conclusion 309 Notes 319 Selected Bibliography 363 Index 379
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Illustrations
PLATES (following page 90) Plate 1. Richard Nisbett, Mariner, psychotic map, water- color, of 010/1819n, reproduced with permission of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Plate 2. James Tilly Matthews, A Small Cottage, hand- colored engraving, from Useful Architecture (London, 1812), reproduced with permission of Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Plate 3. James Tilly Matthews, An Economical Villa, a hand-colored engraving, from Useful Architecture (London, 1812), reproduced with permission of Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Plate 4. Theodore G6ricault, "La folle" ou monomanie de I'envie, oil on canvas, 1822-1823, Mus6e des Beaux-Arts, Lyon. Plate 5. Heinrich Anton MuIIer, Personnage avec chevre et grenouille, black and white chalk over pencil on card- board, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Gesellschaft fur Psychiatric, Chexbres, A 1978.9. Plate 6. Xavier Cotton, Election de Montmartre, November 1890, Chinese ink with watercolor and colored crayon, Collection de I'Art Brut, Lausanne. Plate 7. Vincent van Gogh, Hospital at Aries, 1889, oil on canvas, Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur, Switzer- land. Plate 8. James Hatfield, Epitaph of my poor Jack, Squirrel, 1826, watercolor, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. Plate 9. Richard Dadd, Contradiction. Oberon and Titania, oil on canvas, 1854—1858, The Regis Collection, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Plate 10. The study of Cesare Lombroso, Museo di Antropologia criminale, Turin, photograph courtesy of Professor Sergio Tovo. Plate 11. Richard Dadd, The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, oil on canvas, 1855-1864, The Tate Gallery, London, T598. Plate 12. Hermann Heinrich Mebes, A//egorica/- Symholic Work, watercolor, courtesy of Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg.
Plate 13. Robert Gie, Distribution d'effluves avec machine centrale et tableau mitrique, 1916, pencil, crayon, and ink on paper, Collection de I'Art Brut, Lausanne. Plate 14. After Christoph Haizmann, The Return of the Pact with the Devil, ca. 1729, from Trophaeum Mariano- Cellense, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, MS 14. 086. Plate 15. Anonymous, sculptural portrait of Dr. A. Marie, Cesare Lombroso Collection, Museo di Antro- pologia criminale, Turin, photograph courtesy of Sergio Tovo. Plate 16. Seraphine de Senlis, L'arbre du paradis, ca. 1929, Mus6e National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Plate 17. Oskar Kokoschka, Self-Portrait of a Degenerate Artist, 1937 (110x85 cm), oil on canvas, private collection, on loan to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, photograph by Jack Mackenzie, 1986, ® cosmopress, Geneva, 1988. Plate 18. Adolf Wolfli, SanAtf Laurente-Stertft, 1909, from From the Cradle to the Graave, 3: 401-2, Adolf Wolfli- Stiftung, Kunstmuseum, Bern. Plate 19. Richard Dadd, Portrait of Sir Alexander Morrison, 1852, oil on canvas, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. Plate 20. "Le Voyageur Frangais," decorative composi- tion, 1902-1905, watercolor, Collection de I'Art Brut, Lausanne. Plate 21. Ernst Josephson, Portrait of Stage Director Ludvig Josephson, 1893 (137 x 109 cm), oil on canvas, National Museum, Stockholm, NM6352. Plate 22. Adolf Wolfli, Untitled, 1911, from From the Cradle to the Graave, 4: 346. Adolf Wolfli-Stiftung, Kunst- museum, Bern. Plate 23. August Natterer, Witch's Head, courtesy of Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg. Plate 24. Franz Karl Buhler, Fabulous Animals, chalk, courtesy of Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg. Plate 25. Johann Hauser, Woman, 1985, pencil and colored pencil, courtesy of Dr. Leo Navratil.
f.v
x / List of Illustrations Plate 26. Emil Nolde, Dance around the Golden Calf, 1910, oil on canvas, courtesy of Stiftung Seebull Ada and Emil Nolde, Seebull. Plate 27. Miguel Hernandez, Woman and Birds, 1947, oil on canvas, Collection de I'Art Brut, Lausanne.
Plate 28. Aloise, Sphinx-Maria Stuart, Mus6e Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne. Plate 29. August Klotz, Repuplik, gouache, courtesy of Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg.
Fig. 1.1. William Hogarth, The Rake's Progress, plate 8, "In Bedlam," 1735, engraving (first state), Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, bequest of Henry K. Dick. 12 Fig. 1.2. Anonymous, Robert Hooke Bethlem Hospital, 1764-1766, engraving, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 12 Fig. 1.3. Kleophrades Painter, detail from an Attic red- figure vase showing an ecstatic maenad, ca. 510 B.C., from Vulci, now in the Staatliche Antiken Sammlungen, Munich, Inv. 8732. 13 Fig. 1.4. Anonymous, Saint Francis healing a woman possessed by the devil, detail from an altar painting in the Treasury of San Francesco, mid-thirteenth century, reproduced with permission of the Sacro Convento di S. Francesco, Assisi. 13 Fig. 1.5. Anonymous, moonstruck maidens, eighteenth century, engraving, The Bettman Archive. 13 Fig. 1.6. Malincolia, from Cesar6 Ripa, Iconologia (Padua, 1611). 14 Fig. 1.7. Caius Gabriel Gibber, Melancholy, ca. 1676, Portland stone, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 14 Fig. 1.8. Caius Gabriel Gibber, Raving Madness, ca. 1676, portland stone, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 15 Fig. 1.9. Anonymous, title page from Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (Oxford, 1638), engraving by C. Le Bon. 16 Fig. 1.10. Anonymous, male ward in Bedlam, engraving by Bernard Lens and John Sturt, from Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub, fifth edition (London, 1710), reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 17 Fig. 1.11. William Hogarth, The Rake's Progres', detail from plate 8, "In Bedlam," 1735, engraving (unfinished proof), Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, bequest of Henry K. Dick. 18 Fig. 1.12. Anonymous, interior of a madhouse, eighteenth century, engraving, reproduced with
permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 19 Fig. 1.13. Detail of Fig. 1.12. 20 Fig. 1.14. Anonymous, interior of Bethlem Hospital, en- graving from Daniel Hack Tuke, Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles (London, 1882). 21 Fig. 1.15. Paul Sandby, The Author Run Mad |Hogarth|, etching, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London. 21 Fig. 1.16. Wilhelm von Kaulbach, Das Narrenhaus, 1835, engraving by Caspar Heinrich Merz. Philadelphia Mu- seum of Art; Acquired from the John S. Phillips bequest of 1876 to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. 22 Fig. 1.17. Detail of Fig. 1.16. 23 Fig. 2.1. Opicinus de Canistris, confessional self-portrait. 1335-1336, Vatican Library, Cod. Pal. Lat. 1993, p. 42, reproduced with permission of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Citta del Vaticano, Rome. 26 Fig. 2.2. Tony Robert-Fleury, Pinel Unchaining the In- sane at the Hospital of Salpetriere, 1878, oil on canvas, reproduced with permission of the Phototheque, P.C.H., Centre Medico-Technique de I'Assistance Publique, Sal- petriere, Paris. 27 Fig. 2.3. Machine constructed by a paranoic, nineteenth century, location unknown, from A. A. Roback and Thomas Kieman, Pictorial History of Psychology and Psychiatry (New York, 1969) p. 53. 28 Fig. 2.4. Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier, The Scourge of Demons, frontispiece from Les farfadets, vol. 1 (Paris, 1821), engraving by Langlum6, signed by Quinart. 29 Fig. 2.5. Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier, Pinel as a Devil, plate 6, from Les farfadets, vol. 2 (Paris, 1821) engraving by Langlum^, signed by Quinart. 29 Fig. 2.6. Thomas Sully, Benjamin Rush, engraving by R. W. Dodson, reproduced with permission of The Histor- ical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 30 Fig. 2.7. Richard Nisbett, Mariner, An Antarctic Scenery, 1816, watercolor, reproduced with permission of The Library Company of Philadelphia. 31 Fig. 2.8. G. Dawe, Portrait of John Haslam, Apothecary of Bethlem Hospital, engraving by H. Dawe, 1812, repro- duced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 33
List of Illustrations / xi
Fig. 2.9. Henry Monro, Portrait of Dr. Thomas Monro, ca. 1810, pastel, reproduced with permission of The Royal College of Physicians, London. 33 Fig. 2.10. Title page from John Haslam, Illustrations of Madness (London, 1810). 33 Fig. 2.11. James Tilly Matthews, DIAGRAM, or Plan of the Cellar, or Place, where the Assassins Rendezvous and Work, from John Haslam, Illustrations of Madness (London, 1810). 35 Fig. 3.1. Mania, from J.E.D. Esquirol, Des maladies men- tales considiries sous les rapports midical, hygUnique et m6dico-l6gal (Paris, 1838). 40 Fig. 3.2. Demonomania, drawn by Georges-Frangois- Marie Gabriel, from engraving in J.E.D. Esquirol, Des maladies mentales consid6r6es sous les rapports medical, hygUnique et m6dico-l6gal (Paris, 1838). 40 Fig. 3.3. A patient, photograph by Adrien Tournachon, from Duchenne de Boulogne, Mtcanisme de la physio- nomie humaine (Paris, 1862). 43 Fig. 4.1. Bethlem Hospital, Saint George's Fields, South- wark, London, 1815, rear view with the wing for the criminal insane (destroyed), architect, James Lewis, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 46 Fig. 4.2. Robert Woodley Brown, Portrait of Jonathan Martin, 1829, oil on canvas, York Minster Library, on loan to York City Art Gallery. 47 Fig. 4.3. Jonathan Martin, Self-Portrait with the Battle of the Lambton Worm, detail, 1829, private collection, London. 48 Fig. 4.4. Jonathan Martin, York Minster, reproduced with permission of York Minster Library, York. 51 Fig. 4.5. Jonathan Martin, Jonathan Martin's Miracu- lous Escape from the Asylum at Gateshead, near New- castle, wood engraving from The Life of Jonathan Martin of Darlington, Tanner, third edition (Lincoln, 1828). 54 Fig. 4.6. Jonathan Martin, The Son of Buoneparte Cap- turing England, copper engraving, frontispiece from The Life of Jonathan Martin of Darlington, Tanner, second edition (Barnard Castle, 1826). 54 Fig. 4.7. Jonathan Martin, The Gates of Hell, May 6, 1830, private collection, London. 56 Fig. 4.8. Jonathan Martin, Jonathan Martin's Combat with the Black Lion of Hell and All His Combined Power, April 26, 1829, York Minster, reproduced with permis- sion of York Minster Library, York. 57 Fig. 4.9. Jonathan Martin, Jonathan Martin's Combat with the Black Lion of Hell and All His Combined Power, April 27, 1829, York City Art Gallery. 57
Fig. 4.10. William Martin, Lion, Symbol of Himself, engraving from William Martin, A Short Outline of the Philosopher's Life (Newcastle, 1833). The autograph inscription occurs only on the copy of the book in the British Reference Library, London. 58 Fig. 4.11. John Martin, Satan, Sin, and Death, from his illustrations to Milton, Paradise Lost (London, Septimus Prowett, 1827), British Museum, London. 60 Fig. 4.12. Detail of Fig. 4.7. 61 Fig. 4.13. Jonathan Martin, London's Overthrow, 1830, pen and ink and wash on paper, private collection, London. 62 Fig. 4.14. John Martin, The Fall of Nineveh, messotint engraving, 1829, British Museum, London. 63 Fig. 4.15. Detail of Fig. 4.13. 64 Fig. 4.16. Detail of Fig. 4.13. 65 Fig. 5.1. Henry Fuseli, The Escapee, ca. 1779, pen and wash drawing, British Museum, London. 68 Fig. 5.2. Henry Fuseli, The Vision of the Lazar House, 1791-1793, pencil and sepia wash drawing. Kunsthaus, Zurich. 68 Fig. 5.3. Henry Fuseli, Mad Kate, 1806-1807, oil on can- vas, Freies Deutsches Hochstift, Frankfurt am Main. 69 Fig. 5.4. Francesco Goya, Corral de locos, ca. 1794, oil, Algur H. Meadows Collection, Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. 70 Fig. 5.5. Francesco Goya, Loco furioso, 1824-1828, black chalk drawing from Album G.3, private collection, Paris. 72 Fig. 5.6. Francesco Goya, The Madhouse, ca. 1812-1819, oil on panel, Royal Academy of San Fernando, Madrid. 73 Fig. 5.7. Pablo Picasso, Painter with a Model Knitting, 1927 (13 x 10"), from a series of etchings made to illus- trate Balzac, Le chef d'oeuvre inconnu (Paris, 1931), col- lection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Louis E. Stern Collection, © ars N.Y. / spadem, 1989. 79 Fig. 5.8. G6rard de Nerval, 1855, photograph by Felix Tournachon (F6lix Nadar). 80 Fig. 5.9. Dr. Emile Blanche. 82 Fig. 5.10. G6rard de Nerval, Gtntalogie fantaslique. Collection Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, Chantilly, D 741. fo 78. 82 Fig. 5.11. G6rard de Nerval, Butterflies, from the manu- script entitled Reves fatals—Lilith, Collection. Jean Richer, Nice. 83 Fig. 5.12. Gerard de Nerval, Hacine, Collection of Eric Buffetaud, Cabinet Laurin, Guilloux, Buffetaud Tailleur, Paris. 83
xii / List of Illustrations Fig. 5.13. Leopold Flameng, Charles Meryon Sitting Up in Bed, 1858, heliogravure, Chicago Art Institute, Stickney Collection, 1927.360, © The Art Institute of Chicago, All Rights Reserved. 84 Fig. 5.14. Charles Meryon, Le ministere de la marine, 1866, etching, Chicago Art Institute, Clarence Bucking- ham Collection, 1938.1629, © The Art Institute of Chicago, All Rights Reserved. 86 Fig. 5.15. Charles Meryon, La loi lunaire (second plate), 1866, Chicago Art Institute, E. H. Stickney Fund, 1909.194, © The Art Institute of Chicago, All Rights Reserved. 87 Fig. 5.16. Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of a Patient, 1889, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam. 89 Fig. 6.1. Cesare Lombroso. 93 Fig. 6.2. Furniture made by a paranoid patient, the Lombroso Collection, Museo di Antropologia criminale, Turin, from Lombroso, Man of Genius (Turin, 1882), plate 26. 94 Fig. 6.3. Picture chosen by Lombroso to represent "minuteness of detail," from Man of Genius, plate 10. 96 Fig. 6.4. "Arabesques" with concealed figures, from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 8. 97 Fig. 6.5. Works illustrative of "stylistic features belong- ing to earlier periods," from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 8. 97 Fig. 6.6. "Atavism; a sculptural work by a patient recall- ing a work of the thirteenth century," from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 8. 97 Fig. 6.7. "Insanity itself as a subject," from Lombroso, Man of Genius, p. 307. 98 Fig. 6.8. Drawings of an "erotomaniac," the Lombroso Collection, Museo di Antropologia criminale, Turin, from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 15. 98 Fig. 6.9. "Self-portrait of a megalomaniac, naked, among women, ejecting worlds," from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 14. 99 Fig. 6.10. Ideo-phonetic writings (top)-, carved wooden figure by "A.T." (bottom), from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 10. 100 Fig. 7.1. Anonymous, The Soul of the Earth, drawing from A. A. Tardieu, Etudes mtdico-Ugales sur la folie (Paris, 1872), p. 102. 105 Fig. 7.2. M. Dumont, The Triumph of Death (above), and symbolic diagram by a musician in the asylum at Bron (below), from P. M. Simon, Archivo di antropologia criminelle 3 (1888), plate 15. 109 Fig. 7.3. Anonymous, "A hermetically sealed apparatus
for cooking" (top left), from P. M. Simon, Archivo di antropologia criminelle 3 (1888), plates 18-20. Ill Fig. 7.4. Monsieur "H.," three drawings expressive of dif- ferent mental states experienced by one individual, from P. M. Simon, Archivo di antropologia criminelle 3 (1888), plate 17. 112 Fig. 7.5. Ch. . . ., drawing of a horse (fop left)-, a beautiful actor (bottom right), from P. M. Simon, Archivo di antro- pologia criminelle 3 (1888), plates 20-25. 114 Fig. 8.1. Richard Dadd, Caravan Halted by the Sea Shore, 1843, oil on canvas, collection of Miss V. R. Levine, Mathaf Gallery, London. 119 Fig. 8.2. Richard Dadd at work on the painting Contra- diction. Oberon and Titania, ca. 1856, photograph by Henry Hering, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 123 Fig. 8.3. Charles Fr6chou, Portrait of Dr. Charles Hood, 1851, oil on canvas, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 125 Fig. 8.4. George Henry Haydon. 127 Fig. 8.5. Richard Dadd, Hatred: Sketches to Illustrate the Passions, 1853, watercolor, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospi- tal Health Authority, London. 128 Fig. 8.6. Richard Dadd, Portrait of a Young Man, 1853, oil on canvas, private collection. 130 Fig. 8.7. Richard Dadd, Portrait of Dr. William Orange, 1875, oil on canvas, Broadmoor Hospital Collection. 131 Fig. 8.8. Richard Dadd, Agony—Raving Madness: Sketches to Illustrate the Passions, 1854, watercolor, re- produced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 135 Fig. 8.9. The interior of the male ward of Bethlem Hospi- tal, ca. 1860, engraving, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 139 Fig. 9.1. The Bloomingdale Asylum. 142 Fig. 9.2. "G," Paradise and the Peri, watercolor, from William Noyes, The American Journal of Psychology 2 (1889): 348. 143 Fig. 9.3. "G," paintings and drawings done before the onset of his illness, from William Noyes, The American Journal of Psychology 2 (1889): 352. 144 Fig. 9.4. "G," mandala, watercolor, from William Noyes, The American Journal of Psychology 1 (1888): 469. 145 Fig. 9.5. "G," watercolors from his book Threads of
List of Illustrations / xiii
Thought, from William Noyes, The American Journal of Psychology 2 (1889): 354. 146 Fig. 9.6. "G," watercolors from his book Threads of Thought, from William Noyes. The American Journal of Psychology 1 (1888): 474. 148 Fig. 9.7. "G," witches and vampires, watercolors, from William Noyes, The American Journal of Psychology 2 (1889): 375. 149 Fig. 10.1. Copy of a plate from Cesare Lombroso, Man of Genius, reproduced in J. G. Kiernan, Alienist and Neurologist 13 (1892). 152 Fig. 10.2. Anonymous, Paranoiac Landscape, from J. G. Kiernan, Alienist and Neurologist 13 (1892). 153 Fig. 10.3. Dr. Daniel Clark of Toronto, Canada. 154 Fig. 10.4. Landscape with waterfall by "a female para- noiac," from Ales Hrdlidka, American Journal of Insanity 55 (1899). 155 Fig. 10.5. A scene from the Southwest by "a female para- noiac," from Ales Hrdlidka, American Journal of Insanity 55 (1899). 156 Fig. 10.6. Illuminated manuscript by "a male paranoiac with religious delusions," from Ales Hrdlidka, American Journal of Insanity 55 (1899). 156 Fig. 10.7. Drawing by "an artistic fresco-painter and decorator," from Ales Hrdliika, American Journal of Insanity 55 (1899). 157 Fig. 10.8. Ralph Albert Blakelock at the age of thirty. 158 Fig. 10.9. Ralph Albert Blakelock, Reclining Figure, private collection. 159 Fig. 11.1. George Greenshields, The Black Bull and A Mine, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 164 Fig. 11.2. "Strange Pictures Drawn by Inmates of Asy- lum for the Insane," from The Daily Mirror, Saturday, August 9, 1913. 167 Fig. 11.3. "A Mad Museum; The Insane as Artists," from The Sketch, November 22, 1905. 168 Fig. 11.4. Doctor Marie with his portrait statue, from Je sais tout, October 15, 1905. 170…
of the Insane
JOHN M. MacGREGOR
Princeton University Press / Princeton, New Jersey
Copyright " 1989 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street. Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press. Oxford All Rights Reserved This book has been composed in Linotron Century Schoolbook Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources Printed in the United Stales of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in -Publication Data MacGregor, John M. (John Monroe) The discovery of the art of the insane / John M. MacGregor.
p. cm.. • Based on author's thesis (Ph.D.)—Princeton University, 1978.
Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-691-04071-0 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-691-00036-0 (pbk.l 1 Art and mental illness—History. I. Title. RC455.4.A77M33 1989 616.89—dcl9 88-37986 First Princeton Paperback printing. 1992 98765432
To the memory of my father
CHARLES EDWARD McGREGOR
List of Illustrations ix Preface xvii Introduction 3
one. The Confrontation: The Artist and the Madman 11 two. The Physician and the Art of the Patient 25 three. Georget and G6ricault: The Portraits of the Insane 38 four. Jonathan Martin of Bedlam 45 five. Insanity in the Context of Romanticism 67 six. Cesare Lombroso: The Theory of Genius and Insanity 91 seven. Paul-Max Simon and the Study of Psychiatry and Art 103 eight. Victorian Bedlam: The Case of Richard Dadd 116 nine. William Noyes and the Case of "G" 142 ten. The Chicago Conference 151 eleven. Marcel R6ja: Critic of the Art of the Insane 161 twelve. Hans Prinzhorn and the German Contribution 185 thirteen. The World of Adolf Wolfli 206 fourteen. Expressionism and the Art of the Insane 222 fifteen. Psychoanalysis and the Study of Psychotic Art 245 sixteen. Psychosis and Surrealism 271 seventeen. Dubuffet and the Aesthetic of Art Brut 292
Conclusion 309 Notes 319 Selected Bibliography 363 Index 379
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Illustrations
PLATES (following page 90) Plate 1. Richard Nisbett, Mariner, psychotic map, water- color, of 010/1819n, reproduced with permission of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Plate 2. James Tilly Matthews, A Small Cottage, hand- colored engraving, from Useful Architecture (London, 1812), reproduced with permission of Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Plate 3. James Tilly Matthews, An Economical Villa, a hand-colored engraving, from Useful Architecture (London, 1812), reproduced with permission of Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Plate 4. Theodore G6ricault, "La folle" ou monomanie de I'envie, oil on canvas, 1822-1823, Mus6e des Beaux-Arts, Lyon. Plate 5. Heinrich Anton MuIIer, Personnage avec chevre et grenouille, black and white chalk over pencil on card- board, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Gesellschaft fur Psychiatric, Chexbres, A 1978.9. Plate 6. Xavier Cotton, Election de Montmartre, November 1890, Chinese ink with watercolor and colored crayon, Collection de I'Art Brut, Lausanne. Plate 7. Vincent van Gogh, Hospital at Aries, 1889, oil on canvas, Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur, Switzer- land. Plate 8. James Hatfield, Epitaph of my poor Jack, Squirrel, 1826, watercolor, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. Plate 9. Richard Dadd, Contradiction. Oberon and Titania, oil on canvas, 1854—1858, The Regis Collection, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Plate 10. The study of Cesare Lombroso, Museo di Antropologia criminale, Turin, photograph courtesy of Professor Sergio Tovo. Plate 11. Richard Dadd, The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, oil on canvas, 1855-1864, The Tate Gallery, London, T598. Plate 12. Hermann Heinrich Mebes, A//egorica/- Symholic Work, watercolor, courtesy of Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg.
Plate 13. Robert Gie, Distribution d'effluves avec machine centrale et tableau mitrique, 1916, pencil, crayon, and ink on paper, Collection de I'Art Brut, Lausanne. Plate 14. After Christoph Haizmann, The Return of the Pact with the Devil, ca. 1729, from Trophaeum Mariano- Cellense, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, MS 14. 086. Plate 15. Anonymous, sculptural portrait of Dr. A. Marie, Cesare Lombroso Collection, Museo di Antro- pologia criminale, Turin, photograph courtesy of Sergio Tovo. Plate 16. Seraphine de Senlis, L'arbre du paradis, ca. 1929, Mus6e National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Plate 17. Oskar Kokoschka, Self-Portrait of a Degenerate Artist, 1937 (110x85 cm), oil on canvas, private collection, on loan to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, photograph by Jack Mackenzie, 1986, ® cosmopress, Geneva, 1988. Plate 18. Adolf Wolfli, SanAtf Laurente-Stertft, 1909, from From the Cradle to the Graave, 3: 401-2, Adolf Wolfli- Stiftung, Kunstmuseum, Bern. Plate 19. Richard Dadd, Portrait of Sir Alexander Morrison, 1852, oil on canvas, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. Plate 20. "Le Voyageur Frangais," decorative composi- tion, 1902-1905, watercolor, Collection de I'Art Brut, Lausanne. Plate 21. Ernst Josephson, Portrait of Stage Director Ludvig Josephson, 1893 (137 x 109 cm), oil on canvas, National Museum, Stockholm, NM6352. Plate 22. Adolf Wolfli, Untitled, 1911, from From the Cradle to the Graave, 4: 346. Adolf Wolfli-Stiftung, Kunst- museum, Bern. Plate 23. August Natterer, Witch's Head, courtesy of Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg. Plate 24. Franz Karl Buhler, Fabulous Animals, chalk, courtesy of Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg. Plate 25. Johann Hauser, Woman, 1985, pencil and colored pencil, courtesy of Dr. Leo Navratil.
f.v
x / List of Illustrations Plate 26. Emil Nolde, Dance around the Golden Calf, 1910, oil on canvas, courtesy of Stiftung Seebull Ada and Emil Nolde, Seebull. Plate 27. Miguel Hernandez, Woman and Birds, 1947, oil on canvas, Collection de I'Art Brut, Lausanne.
Plate 28. Aloise, Sphinx-Maria Stuart, Mus6e Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne. Plate 29. August Klotz, Repuplik, gouache, courtesy of Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg.
Fig. 1.1. William Hogarth, The Rake's Progress, plate 8, "In Bedlam," 1735, engraving (first state), Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, bequest of Henry K. Dick. 12 Fig. 1.2. Anonymous, Robert Hooke Bethlem Hospital, 1764-1766, engraving, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 12 Fig. 1.3. Kleophrades Painter, detail from an Attic red- figure vase showing an ecstatic maenad, ca. 510 B.C., from Vulci, now in the Staatliche Antiken Sammlungen, Munich, Inv. 8732. 13 Fig. 1.4. Anonymous, Saint Francis healing a woman possessed by the devil, detail from an altar painting in the Treasury of San Francesco, mid-thirteenth century, reproduced with permission of the Sacro Convento di S. Francesco, Assisi. 13 Fig. 1.5. Anonymous, moonstruck maidens, eighteenth century, engraving, The Bettman Archive. 13 Fig. 1.6. Malincolia, from Cesar6 Ripa, Iconologia (Padua, 1611). 14 Fig. 1.7. Caius Gabriel Gibber, Melancholy, ca. 1676, Portland stone, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 14 Fig. 1.8. Caius Gabriel Gibber, Raving Madness, ca. 1676, portland stone, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 15 Fig. 1.9. Anonymous, title page from Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (Oxford, 1638), engraving by C. Le Bon. 16 Fig. 1.10. Anonymous, male ward in Bedlam, engraving by Bernard Lens and John Sturt, from Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub, fifth edition (London, 1710), reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 17 Fig. 1.11. William Hogarth, The Rake's Progres', detail from plate 8, "In Bedlam," 1735, engraving (unfinished proof), Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, bequest of Henry K. Dick. 18 Fig. 1.12. Anonymous, interior of a madhouse, eighteenth century, engraving, reproduced with
permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 19 Fig. 1.13. Detail of Fig. 1.12. 20 Fig. 1.14. Anonymous, interior of Bethlem Hospital, en- graving from Daniel Hack Tuke, Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles (London, 1882). 21 Fig. 1.15. Paul Sandby, The Author Run Mad |Hogarth|, etching, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London. 21 Fig. 1.16. Wilhelm von Kaulbach, Das Narrenhaus, 1835, engraving by Caspar Heinrich Merz. Philadelphia Mu- seum of Art; Acquired from the John S. Phillips bequest of 1876 to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. 22 Fig. 1.17. Detail of Fig. 1.16. 23 Fig. 2.1. Opicinus de Canistris, confessional self-portrait. 1335-1336, Vatican Library, Cod. Pal. Lat. 1993, p. 42, reproduced with permission of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Citta del Vaticano, Rome. 26 Fig. 2.2. Tony Robert-Fleury, Pinel Unchaining the In- sane at the Hospital of Salpetriere, 1878, oil on canvas, reproduced with permission of the Phototheque, P.C.H., Centre Medico-Technique de I'Assistance Publique, Sal- petriere, Paris. 27 Fig. 2.3. Machine constructed by a paranoic, nineteenth century, location unknown, from A. A. Roback and Thomas Kieman, Pictorial History of Psychology and Psychiatry (New York, 1969) p. 53. 28 Fig. 2.4. Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier, The Scourge of Demons, frontispiece from Les farfadets, vol. 1 (Paris, 1821), engraving by Langlum6, signed by Quinart. 29 Fig. 2.5. Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier, Pinel as a Devil, plate 6, from Les farfadets, vol. 2 (Paris, 1821) engraving by Langlum^, signed by Quinart. 29 Fig. 2.6. Thomas Sully, Benjamin Rush, engraving by R. W. Dodson, reproduced with permission of The Histor- ical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 30 Fig. 2.7. Richard Nisbett, Mariner, An Antarctic Scenery, 1816, watercolor, reproduced with permission of The Library Company of Philadelphia. 31 Fig. 2.8. G. Dawe, Portrait of John Haslam, Apothecary of Bethlem Hospital, engraving by H. Dawe, 1812, repro- duced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 33
List of Illustrations / xi
Fig. 2.9. Henry Monro, Portrait of Dr. Thomas Monro, ca. 1810, pastel, reproduced with permission of The Royal College of Physicians, London. 33 Fig. 2.10. Title page from John Haslam, Illustrations of Madness (London, 1810). 33 Fig. 2.11. James Tilly Matthews, DIAGRAM, or Plan of the Cellar, or Place, where the Assassins Rendezvous and Work, from John Haslam, Illustrations of Madness (London, 1810). 35 Fig. 3.1. Mania, from J.E.D. Esquirol, Des maladies men- tales considiries sous les rapports midical, hygUnique et m6dico-l6gal (Paris, 1838). 40 Fig. 3.2. Demonomania, drawn by Georges-Frangois- Marie Gabriel, from engraving in J.E.D. Esquirol, Des maladies mentales consid6r6es sous les rapports medical, hygUnique et m6dico-l6gal (Paris, 1838). 40 Fig. 3.3. A patient, photograph by Adrien Tournachon, from Duchenne de Boulogne, Mtcanisme de la physio- nomie humaine (Paris, 1862). 43 Fig. 4.1. Bethlem Hospital, Saint George's Fields, South- wark, London, 1815, rear view with the wing for the criminal insane (destroyed), architect, James Lewis, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 46 Fig. 4.2. Robert Woodley Brown, Portrait of Jonathan Martin, 1829, oil on canvas, York Minster Library, on loan to York City Art Gallery. 47 Fig. 4.3. Jonathan Martin, Self-Portrait with the Battle of the Lambton Worm, detail, 1829, private collection, London. 48 Fig. 4.4. Jonathan Martin, York Minster, reproduced with permission of York Minster Library, York. 51 Fig. 4.5. Jonathan Martin, Jonathan Martin's Miracu- lous Escape from the Asylum at Gateshead, near New- castle, wood engraving from The Life of Jonathan Martin of Darlington, Tanner, third edition (Lincoln, 1828). 54 Fig. 4.6. Jonathan Martin, The Son of Buoneparte Cap- turing England, copper engraving, frontispiece from The Life of Jonathan Martin of Darlington, Tanner, second edition (Barnard Castle, 1826). 54 Fig. 4.7. Jonathan Martin, The Gates of Hell, May 6, 1830, private collection, London. 56 Fig. 4.8. Jonathan Martin, Jonathan Martin's Combat with the Black Lion of Hell and All His Combined Power, April 26, 1829, York Minster, reproduced with permis- sion of York Minster Library, York. 57 Fig. 4.9. Jonathan Martin, Jonathan Martin's Combat with the Black Lion of Hell and All His Combined Power, April 27, 1829, York City Art Gallery. 57
Fig. 4.10. William Martin, Lion, Symbol of Himself, engraving from William Martin, A Short Outline of the Philosopher's Life (Newcastle, 1833). The autograph inscription occurs only on the copy of the book in the British Reference Library, London. 58 Fig. 4.11. John Martin, Satan, Sin, and Death, from his illustrations to Milton, Paradise Lost (London, Septimus Prowett, 1827), British Museum, London. 60 Fig. 4.12. Detail of Fig. 4.7. 61 Fig. 4.13. Jonathan Martin, London's Overthrow, 1830, pen and ink and wash on paper, private collection, London. 62 Fig. 4.14. John Martin, The Fall of Nineveh, messotint engraving, 1829, British Museum, London. 63 Fig. 4.15. Detail of Fig. 4.13. 64 Fig. 4.16. Detail of Fig. 4.13. 65 Fig. 5.1. Henry Fuseli, The Escapee, ca. 1779, pen and wash drawing, British Museum, London. 68 Fig. 5.2. Henry Fuseli, The Vision of the Lazar House, 1791-1793, pencil and sepia wash drawing. Kunsthaus, Zurich. 68 Fig. 5.3. Henry Fuseli, Mad Kate, 1806-1807, oil on can- vas, Freies Deutsches Hochstift, Frankfurt am Main. 69 Fig. 5.4. Francesco Goya, Corral de locos, ca. 1794, oil, Algur H. Meadows Collection, Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. 70 Fig. 5.5. Francesco Goya, Loco furioso, 1824-1828, black chalk drawing from Album G.3, private collection, Paris. 72 Fig. 5.6. Francesco Goya, The Madhouse, ca. 1812-1819, oil on panel, Royal Academy of San Fernando, Madrid. 73 Fig. 5.7. Pablo Picasso, Painter with a Model Knitting, 1927 (13 x 10"), from a series of etchings made to illus- trate Balzac, Le chef d'oeuvre inconnu (Paris, 1931), col- lection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Louis E. Stern Collection, © ars N.Y. / spadem, 1989. 79 Fig. 5.8. G6rard de Nerval, 1855, photograph by Felix Tournachon (F6lix Nadar). 80 Fig. 5.9. Dr. Emile Blanche. 82 Fig. 5.10. G6rard de Nerval, Gtntalogie fantaslique. Collection Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, Chantilly, D 741. fo 78. 82 Fig. 5.11. G6rard de Nerval, Butterflies, from the manu- script entitled Reves fatals—Lilith, Collection. Jean Richer, Nice. 83 Fig. 5.12. Gerard de Nerval, Hacine, Collection of Eric Buffetaud, Cabinet Laurin, Guilloux, Buffetaud Tailleur, Paris. 83
xii / List of Illustrations Fig. 5.13. Leopold Flameng, Charles Meryon Sitting Up in Bed, 1858, heliogravure, Chicago Art Institute, Stickney Collection, 1927.360, © The Art Institute of Chicago, All Rights Reserved. 84 Fig. 5.14. Charles Meryon, Le ministere de la marine, 1866, etching, Chicago Art Institute, Clarence Bucking- ham Collection, 1938.1629, © The Art Institute of Chicago, All Rights Reserved. 86 Fig. 5.15. Charles Meryon, La loi lunaire (second plate), 1866, Chicago Art Institute, E. H. Stickney Fund, 1909.194, © The Art Institute of Chicago, All Rights Reserved. 87 Fig. 5.16. Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of a Patient, 1889, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam. 89 Fig. 6.1. Cesare Lombroso. 93 Fig. 6.2. Furniture made by a paranoid patient, the Lombroso Collection, Museo di Antropologia criminale, Turin, from Lombroso, Man of Genius (Turin, 1882), plate 26. 94 Fig. 6.3. Picture chosen by Lombroso to represent "minuteness of detail," from Man of Genius, plate 10. 96 Fig. 6.4. "Arabesques" with concealed figures, from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 8. 97 Fig. 6.5. Works illustrative of "stylistic features belong- ing to earlier periods," from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 8. 97 Fig. 6.6. "Atavism; a sculptural work by a patient recall- ing a work of the thirteenth century," from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 8. 97 Fig. 6.7. "Insanity itself as a subject," from Lombroso, Man of Genius, p. 307. 98 Fig. 6.8. Drawings of an "erotomaniac," the Lombroso Collection, Museo di Antropologia criminale, Turin, from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 15. 98 Fig. 6.9. "Self-portrait of a megalomaniac, naked, among women, ejecting worlds," from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 14. 99 Fig. 6.10. Ideo-phonetic writings (top)-, carved wooden figure by "A.T." (bottom), from Lombroso, Man of Genius, plate 10. 100 Fig. 7.1. Anonymous, The Soul of the Earth, drawing from A. A. Tardieu, Etudes mtdico-Ugales sur la folie (Paris, 1872), p. 102. 105 Fig. 7.2. M. Dumont, The Triumph of Death (above), and symbolic diagram by a musician in the asylum at Bron (below), from P. M. Simon, Archivo di antropologia criminelle 3 (1888), plate 15. 109 Fig. 7.3. Anonymous, "A hermetically sealed apparatus
for cooking" (top left), from P. M. Simon, Archivo di antropologia criminelle 3 (1888), plates 18-20. Ill Fig. 7.4. Monsieur "H.," three drawings expressive of dif- ferent mental states experienced by one individual, from P. M. Simon, Archivo di antropologia criminelle 3 (1888), plate 17. 112 Fig. 7.5. Ch. . . ., drawing of a horse (fop left)-, a beautiful actor (bottom right), from P. M. Simon, Archivo di antro- pologia criminelle 3 (1888), plates 20-25. 114 Fig. 8.1. Richard Dadd, Caravan Halted by the Sea Shore, 1843, oil on canvas, collection of Miss V. R. Levine, Mathaf Gallery, London. 119 Fig. 8.2. Richard Dadd at work on the painting Contra- diction. Oberon and Titania, ca. 1856, photograph by Henry Hering, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 123 Fig. 8.3. Charles Fr6chou, Portrait of Dr. Charles Hood, 1851, oil on canvas, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 125 Fig. 8.4. George Henry Haydon. 127 Fig. 8.5. Richard Dadd, Hatred: Sketches to Illustrate the Passions, 1853, watercolor, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospi- tal Health Authority, London. 128 Fig. 8.6. Richard Dadd, Portrait of a Young Man, 1853, oil on canvas, private collection. 130 Fig. 8.7. Richard Dadd, Portrait of Dr. William Orange, 1875, oil on canvas, Broadmoor Hospital Collection. 131 Fig. 8.8. Richard Dadd, Agony—Raving Madness: Sketches to Illustrate the Passions, 1854, watercolor, re- produced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 135 Fig. 8.9. The interior of the male ward of Bethlem Hospi- tal, ca. 1860, engraving, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 139 Fig. 9.1. The Bloomingdale Asylum. 142 Fig. 9.2. "G," Paradise and the Peri, watercolor, from William Noyes, The American Journal of Psychology 2 (1889): 348. 143 Fig. 9.3. "G," paintings and drawings done before the onset of his illness, from William Noyes, The American Journal of Psychology 2 (1889): 352. 144 Fig. 9.4. "G," mandala, watercolor, from William Noyes, The American Journal of Psychology 1 (1888): 469. 145 Fig. 9.5. "G," watercolors from his book Threads of
List of Illustrations / xiii
Thought, from William Noyes, The American Journal of Psychology 2 (1889): 354. 146 Fig. 9.6. "G," watercolors from his book Threads of Thought, from William Noyes. The American Journal of Psychology 1 (1888): 474. 148 Fig. 9.7. "G," witches and vampires, watercolors, from William Noyes, The American Journal of Psychology 2 (1889): 375. 149 Fig. 10.1. Copy of a plate from Cesare Lombroso, Man of Genius, reproduced in J. G. Kiernan, Alienist and Neurologist 13 (1892). 152 Fig. 10.2. Anonymous, Paranoiac Landscape, from J. G. Kiernan, Alienist and Neurologist 13 (1892). 153 Fig. 10.3. Dr. Daniel Clark of Toronto, Canada. 154 Fig. 10.4. Landscape with waterfall by "a female para- noiac," from Ales Hrdlidka, American Journal of Insanity 55 (1899). 155 Fig. 10.5. A scene from the Southwest by "a female para- noiac," from Ales Hrdlidka, American Journal of Insanity 55 (1899). 156 Fig. 10.6. Illuminated manuscript by "a male paranoiac with religious delusions," from Ales Hrdlidka, American Journal of Insanity 55 (1899). 156 Fig. 10.7. Drawing by "an artistic fresco-painter and decorator," from Ales Hrdliika, American Journal of Insanity 55 (1899). 157 Fig. 10.8. Ralph Albert Blakelock at the age of thirty. 158 Fig. 10.9. Ralph Albert Blakelock, Reclining Figure, private collection. 159 Fig. 11.1. George Greenshields, The Black Bull and A Mine, reproduced with permission of The Bethlem Royal Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital Health Authority, London. 164 Fig. 11.2. "Strange Pictures Drawn by Inmates of Asy- lum for the Insane," from The Daily Mirror, Saturday, August 9, 1913. 167 Fig. 11.3. "A Mad Museum; The Insane as Artists," from The Sketch, November 22, 1905. 168 Fig. 11.4. Doctor Marie with his portrait statue, from Je sais tout, October 15, 1905. 170…
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