Gericault
gli insani di mente
The painting belongs to a series of ten portraits of the insane inmates of Salpêtrière asylum in Paris. Géricault made it nearly the end of his career and the five remaining portraits from the series represent the painter's last triumph. Psychiatrist Étienne-Jean Georget, one of the founders of social psychiatry, asked Géricault to do this painting which would represent each clinical models of disease. Georget believed that dementia was a modern disease, which depended in large part of social progress in industrialized countries. He believed that the madmen who were mentally ill need help. Instead of bringing the ill persons in a class room to examine their physical characteristics, the doctor instructed Géricault to paint models representing different types of madness. Dr. Georget much appreciated the objectivity in this series of works that established a link between romantic art and empirical science.
Géricault, Portraits of the Insane
1822
Portrait_of_a_Kleptomaniac
Portrait of a Kleptomaniac
Man Suffering from Delusions of Military Command
Portait of a Child Snatcher
A Woman Addicted to Gambling,
Portait of a Woman Suffering from Obsessive Envy
Paranoica?
Rivoluzionaria
Théroigne de Méricourt
Théroigne de Méricourt, Heroine of the French Revolution
Matto inglese paranoico?
