Painter’s Colic

To repair the ravages of painter’s colic, Whistler and Joe left for the south of France, planning to go

on to Madrid to see the paintings of Valazquez.

On the way, to help restore Whistler’s health, they stopped off on the Atlantic coast near Biarritz, where he painted a striking work known as the “Blue Wave”.

The World of Whistler (1834-1903) Time Life Books p 43

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Lead poisoning is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. The brain is the most sensitive.  Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, inability to have children, and tingling in the hands and feet. It causes almost 10% of intellectual disability of otherwise unknown cause and can result in behavioral problems. Some of the effects are permanent. In severe cases anemia, seizures, coma, or death may occur. (wiki)

Lead poisoning (saturnism) has been present throughout the history of mankind. In addition to possible ingestion from contaminated food, one of the most important ways in which poisoning caused morbid processes was by occupational exposure. This exposition was pandemic in the Roman Empire, and it has been claimed that it contributed to its fall, but it also caused numerous epidemics in Western countries until the nineteenth century.

In the case of artists, and since the Renaissance period, this toxicity has been called painter’s colic or painter’s madness. The latter term is partly due to the mental disorders displayed by some of the great masters, including Michelangelo and Caravaggio, although it was long recognized that even house and industrial painters were prone to the disorder.

FYI: this website examines the historical evidence of recognition of such toxicity and discusses the controversies raised by the possibility of professional lead poisoning in great artists. In addition to those mentioned above, many other artists across several centuries will be discussed, some being Rubens, Goya, Fortuny, Van Gogh, Renoir, Dufy, Klee, Frida Kahlo, and Portinari. This chapter also briefly mentions the possibility of lead poisoning in two famous composers: Beethoven and Handel. Whether suffering from lead poisoning or not, about which we cannot always be sure, we should still highlight and admire such geniuses fighting their disorders to bequeath us their immortals works.

This is another interesting post that deals with this subject on “The Atlantic.”