Monday, February 1, 2010

Nineteenth-Century Wax Model Exhibited by Jean-Martin Charcot from the Salpêtrière (Addendum to Previous Post)


...in addition there were two special exhibits. The renowned neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) brought over from Paris a life-size wax model of a recumbent woman with locomotor ataxy and disordered joints, together with her preserved skeleton, illustrating one of Charcot's many clinical discoveries; and Jonathan Hutchinson, the chairman of the Museum Committee, organized an "Exhibition of Living Patients"...
Morbid Anatomy reader Alexis Kinloch just this morning sent me an article that, synchronicitously (is that a word?), featured a photograph of the very wax model described in today's earlier Morbid Anatomy post "The Exhibition of Living Patients, 1881 London, England," as detailed in the above epigraph excerpted from that post.

The caption to the image reads: "Nineteenth-Century wax model of a hysteric from the Salpêtrière" (photo: archives de l'Assistance publique); Click on image to see larger version. You can see the specific reference to the waxwork in the epigraph above; You can read the entire original post from which this excerpt was drawn by clicking here. The article showcasing the image is entitled “Effroyable Réalisme”: Wax, Femininity, and the Madness of Realist Fantasies" and was written by Mary Hunter of McGill University and included in the Canadian Art Review (RACAR); to find out more about the journal, click here.

Thanks so very much, Alixis, for sending this along!

2 comments:

Amanda said...

I'm very interested in Charcot and I've only seen one photo of this object previously, from a very different (slightly awkwardly and oblique) angle. This is wonderful!

Gilmore said...

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/160/9/1579