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Show 7 U Very Apparent Ac Exhibit Before the Medical markable New Medical Theory Advanced Before the World's Greatest Medical Congress That imaginative rt Is Only a Symptom of Lunacyand the Pictures by 1 Lunatics That Inspired the Theory jfc-a fcs&c Sepi. 1. " il infers siSI is nothing tmz 2- 5J p-CC of tzj is tie liar: it: 5 aaser- K&srzauccsl Courress of cd ErrceGts held Izi 3fnc Is certainly 2 radi- frn fch fc m?hc ap-esd57. ap-esd57. CoEsideratScn 6Tierce presented In K-iTrTrf rather compels 2 2i it 27 be weii-7 weii-7 rate, the Tt rkr? I kct Ee psychical etrcists the world tshehg eocifeable inter- Cf CCUrSe. that ths- Sos&ees little or To fer from this P7- 5i the artist 13 ? would hardly j zee te Ifcg q rmvC zrC'- iiKkV ?v'?3&bB- In ad- which sems to establish the fact that while the normal Individual possesses little or -o artistic ability, as scon as the mir-d cecones disezsad and the Imagination disordered, the ability to paint or draw or mode! ain-ct invariably in-variably manifests itself. It was pointed cut, for instance, that no less than 70 per cent of the patients admitted to certain lunatic asylums displayed a more cr 133 weS developed ability to dra cr paint soon after the onset of their particular maiacy, although in no instance had the patient previously revealed any artistic talent. While it does not logically follow that because the i-- manifest artistic ar-tistic ability all artista mnst necessarily neces-sarily he insane, the inference is per- art and insanity i3 perhaps closer than was ever before imagined. The concrete evidence used in import im-port of the remarkable proposition advanced at the Medical Congress consisted principally of a series of drawings and paintings made "07 inmates in-mates of insane asylums who, in the majority of cases, had never before shown artistic ability Home of these Interesting exhibits are presented pre-sented on this page. One of these pictures bears a remarkable re-markable resemblance tc the work of the cubist school. As a matter cf fact, the insane author of the drawing draw-ing probab!7 got bis idea from the workrnanship of the cubists, bet the fact remains that before his mental disease developed he had never been ahle to draw at aTL Au-other one of the fetches shows a giraffe. It presents what appears to be a peculiar mixture of the cubist and pest impressionistic schools oi art. It was ?de by an insane woman who had previously shown no artistic ability hatever. A very remarkable drawing shown at the Congress wa3 made by a young man ho Is no a hopeless homicidal maniac tie as sent to the asylum after having murdered his father. Almost Al-most immediately ne manifested a desire to draw and paint. Materials ere famished him and he commenced com-menced at once on a series of six pictures depicting the sir human, passions- The conception as a mo? ambitious ambi-tious one, but the crazed man carried it cut In a most remarkable manner. One of the pictures sho-wiug a manacled man-acled giant and intended to represent the passion of agony, has been declared de-clared by art critics to exhibit unusual un-usual artistic talent. The "Courtyard of an Inn," a picture pic-ture made by another hopeless lunatic, luna-tic, vrho had never displayed any desire de-sire or ability to draw until he became be-came insane, aroused a lot of interest at the Medical Conzress. it as regarded re-garded as an excet-Cionany fine piece of ork, considering that it as executed ex-ecuted by a man -who had never before be-fore handled brush or pencil. So much for the evidence- The conclusions con-clusions to be derived from It remain to be considered. According to Dr. Freiderich Sunz, a eil-knoTm Viennese neurologist, -who attended the Congress and ho made a most careful study of the artistic -works of the lunatics exblbi- - - v - -p I A Lnnafic,a Drawing cf a Woman, Exhibited Before the Inlemaizotial Medical Congress at Loth IB Don. The Artist Never Handled a Pencil Until He Became Insane and Then Art Domin- Ml Cited KU Lunacy. The Face Is a Remarkable Stody of Lunacy in Itself. flH And Edrw V Syssptons" 1 A , ThKruelvea f Ij Poit- j Inrpreiiionjjin tl 1 FP Minn cr. 9 III 1 1 - Tf k . : Pfe'r- V:-. ted at the 3ethlehem Hoyal Hospital, Hospi-tal, the exhibits present strong evidence evi-dence that the ability to dra or paint Is an abnormal one that only the micd disordered Is capable oi IL "The ordinary person can not draw f, presentable picture of even the most familiar objects," the doctor declared. de-clared. This is because he lacks the power to visualize clearly enough to transmit -what he sees to paper. An artist sees an object once and the impression im-pression It makes on his mind is so sharp that he visualizes that object sgaln whenever he desires. That there is something radically different, then, between the make-up of the mind of the artist and that of the ordinary or-dinary Individual would seem to be apparent. "Now comes this remarkable evidence evi-dence that the Insane acquire with their malady this same faculty which distinguishes artists. In other words, the ability to visualize abnormally abnor-mally and to draw or paint seems now to be a symptom of Insanity. "Scientific men will take up the Etudy of insanity anew iu the light of these revelations. It will be Interesting In-teresting to ascertain Just how the diseased mind acquires this added fH Taking up the question from the mWM other standpoint, the situation is mmm equally Interesting. The evidence wmm produced certainly seems to indicate aB9 that what has hitherto been re- BH ferred to as the artistic temperament - BK is nothing else than a form of in- mWm "Oi course, In the majority of MB cases, whatever frenzy or mania ar- SI tists have possessed has been maul- IflE have, however, 'been some notable Hw "William Blake, the famous Sng- j 8Sj lish artist, for instance, not only re- ; SB Tealed his mania in his remarkable : flls work, but was regarded as a lunatic j fll generally. The eccentricities of other WBm famous artists have been put down to the temperament of genius, but am in the light of the reveni revelations SB it would seem that they m ght more HI properly have been regarded as the UKM irresponsible acts of the insane j SJE William Blake was an English ar- BS tist and poet who died nearly one '. 'MM hundred years ago. He was regarded MB 33 a mystic, and there is no doubt ; IBV that his genius had a most peculiar ; nfe bent- During the latter years of his ; tH life it was necessary to keep him ua- rgg der constant restraint H Among the exhibits shown a the fK Medical Congress In this connectiorj BB were a number of drawing and ffiS painting? made by insane artists. It iJB&j was regarded as significant that Vmrn while the onset of the malady In Tmw these case3 had changed the disposi- MS tions of the patients in many respects, IflK such artistic ability as they had pre- iWm vlously possessed seeded to be en- klBt drely unaCected by the mental dis- fflKi order. In other words, their work executed after the insanity developed ZmW and previously was exactly of the oraS ame character. ImISB Dr. Max D. Freucd, a well-known faPjEp alienist of Berlin, who also attended fflB the recent English Congress, was dis- fffiCl posed to minimize the Importance of jaMa the conclusions to be gathered from fnEffl the exhibits of drawings by Insane If&jfl "WblIe they evidence a stimulated Owl power of visualization in the ein- fUffa sane," be declared, "it is yet too early frlwK to say that this power is a character- 334 istic of Insanity. mSmI That the artist's iacalty in this jglJBfl respect is abnormally developed can HJ23 not be denied, but It Is not every ab- SBlKK normally developed faculty that up- BuMP sets the stability of the mind. Ir ffilffiK must be admitted, however, that the fradj fact that this faculty seems to be ttSU sharpened in the Insane is worthy sAXs of research. It does imply that ifislfi the faculty Is one which Isnotneces- f2I9 sary to a normal mind and seems in- OiX'S separable from an abnormal one. 1E?B The statistics presented showing that 70 per cent of the inmates of HBBi certain of the insane institutions HHS showed a desire and ability to draw) SaBrM or paint where neither had been dis- DRmIH played before are too weighty to be; KltBW "Great allowances have sometimes. been made for the vagaries of great fmfl8 artists on the ground of their artls- tiffllSlft tic temperament. It would seem now lwff that there was even more reason fori tfgii such indulgence." f |
