SUB-THESIS

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GERICAULT'S MONOMANIACS AND AN ALIENIST'S VISION

This document presents an analysis of five paintings of monomaniacs by the nineteenth century artist Theodore Gericault. My intention is to place these paintings in a nexus with certain significant historical events of the fin de siècle of the eighteenth century; the birth of the psychiatric profession, the revolutionary and turbulent culture of Europe, the crisis of representation in French academic painting, the return to a monarchist regime of authority and tradition in France and the burgeoning of the industrial economy that contributed to extremes of wealth and poverty throughout France and Europe.

In this paper I dwell upon the birth of the psychiatric profession. I believe the influence of this profession on the making of these images is not only fascinating, but also significant. I touch on other events and circumstances as seen through particular images made by Gericault. I argue that rather than these paintings continue to be thought of as aberrations in the oeuvre of Gericault, that they should be seen as part of his ongoing preoccupation with the degradation of contemporary life in his society.

I explore notions of medical and honorific portraiture and the place that Gericault’s monomaniac paintings have within and outside of this genre. Their non-specificity has contributed to their marginalisation from the historical record as significant nineteenth century art works. This exclusion, however, frees the paintings from the boundaries of historical knowledge and allows the researcher greater latitude to explore the images in relation to more contemporary thought.