Elsevier

Gene

Volume 555, Issue 1, 15 January 2015, Pages 59-62
Gene

Pycnodysostosis and the making of an artist

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2014.09.055Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Toulouse-Lautrec was afflicted by a congenital health condition.

  • Previous debate has shed doubt over his original diagnosis of pycnodysostosis.

  • Contemporary diagnostic criteria were used to analyse his condition.

  • We show that Toulouse-Lautrec in all probability did suffer from pycnodysostosis.

  • Other conditions, such as cleidocranial dysostosis, are also considered.

Abstract

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a 19th century artist celebrated for his depictions of the Moulin Rouge and Parisian nightlife, suffered from an unknown disorder. His symptoms were not only rare, but also difficult to determine. Both during his lifetime and following his death potential diagnoses have proved controversial, including the most popularly supported suggestion of pycnodysostosis. Addressing the ongoing debate of Toulouse-Lautrec's diagnosis, this article reconsiders the evidence. It summarises multiple perspectives and draws on more recent medical research, while acknowledging that the available sources are often unreliable. Ultimately, while there may be no definitive solution to the mystery of Toulouse-Lautrec's diagnosis, it is possible to draw one conclusion. Observing its impact on his life and work, it is clear that the condition formed the foundation of Toulouse-Lautrec's artistic career, shaping the way he perceived the world and defining the artworks that are now so widely admired.

Introduction

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was an artist, a drunk and a self-fashioned bohemian. He is best known for his posters and paintings of cabaret performers in the nightclubs of late 19th century Paris. Picturing dancers of the Moulin Rouge, prostitutes and radicals, his images have come to define our understanding of life on the periphery of French society.

Yet Toulouse-Lautrec is not only renowned for his dissident lifestyle and avant-garde works. Suffering from a rare genetic disorder, he is also known as a medical curiosity. Triggering a debate that has spanned decades and disciplines, his symptoms have been a challenge to identify. However, despite ongoing disagreement and flaws in the evidence, one diagnosis has been in favour. In fact, the acclaimed artist is now so closely associated with a form of dwarfism – pycnodysostosis – that the condition is often described as the ‘Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome’.

Whatever the diagnosis, the title ‘Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome’ is apt. For in many ways the artist not only defined the condition, but also the condition defined him. It played a critical role in his life and works. Impacting his character and choices, the disorder shaped the way Toulouse-Lautrec envisioned the world and those around him. The still undiagnosed syndrome was the making of an artist.

Section snippets

The short life of Toulouse-Lautrec

Toulouse-Lautrec was born in 1864 to an aristocratic family in the South West of France. His grandmothers were sisters and his parents, Comte Alphonse-Charles de Toulouse-Lautrec and Comtesse Adèle Zoë Céleyran de Toulouse-Lautrec, were first cousins (Frey, 1995c, Sweetman, 1999). Gaining wealth, status and privilege from his parents, it was also from their consanguineous marriage that Toulouse-Lautrec inherited a genetic disorder that left him short statured and crippled.

From a young age it

The diagnosis of Toulouse-Lautrec

There has been substantial debate over Toulouse-Lautrec's diagnosis. From surviving documents and images, there is little doubt that the artist suffered with disproportionate dwarfism, with short limbs and a normal trunk length (Fig. 1). However what remains unclear is the cause of this condition, as the precise features of his disease and its underlying pathology have proved difficult to decipher.

During his lifetime, initial diagnoses attributed his symptoms to dampness, nerves, poor nutrition

The making of an artist

Toulouse-Lautrec tackled the difficulties of his condition head on. Visibly deformed, physically handicapped and marginalised from the lifestyle of his aristocratic class, the artist made his home among the outsiders of Paris. With a group of loyal friends, from artists and intellectuals, to prostitutes and coachmen, it seemed that he did not wish to hide from public view. Instead, he used his art to satirise his deformities and attack any patronising sentimentality directed towards him.

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