Art in Science: The Artist and The Disease: The Exemplary Cases of Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec

From the Column Editors, Our colleagues in Bologna and Milan, Italy have skillfully illustrated how physical illness shaped the artistry of two French 19thcentury icons, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. In the case of Renoir, he accommodated for his debilitating deformity and pain from arthritis through the use of technical contrivances that allowed him to manage canvases, access palettes, and grip brushes. These contraptions helped Renoir continue his prolific and creative career well beyond usual endurance. Renoir persisted in defining through color and brush stroke the inner light of Impressionism. For Toulose-Lautrec, his physical deformities drove him to seek asylum and anonymity at the margins of a Bohemian lifestyle found in Parisian night clubs. There, he found and painted the vulnerable characters this environment attracted and the theater they represented. For these insights, and for two of many examples of illness influencing art, we are indebted to Dr. Di Matteo and his colleagues.