All HealA Medical and Social Miscellany
1971, Pages 189–199
Toulouse-Lautrec—Triumph over Infirmity
Publisher Summary
This
chapter discusses triumph over infirmity. Toulouse-Lautrec became hard
of hearing towards the end of his short life. This deafness might be
connected with the fracture of his thigh bones during adolescence, for
it is known that fragile bones and deafness are sometimes associated.
His deafness was a terminal event and played no part in his career or
his childhood bone disorder. His crippled state influenced his artistic
output, for dancing and movement played an important part in many of his
pictures. There is no doubt that his excessive virility accounted for
his choice of some of his subjects. The combination of a crippled
aristocrat who used his artistic genius to depict the dance halls, the
cafés chantants, the circuses, the cycle tracks, the race courses, and
even the maisons closes of Paris has provided the journalist,
biographer, novelist, and film script writer with a wealth of
sensational material, much of it inaccurate and exaggerated.
Copyright © 1971 The Royal Society of Medicine. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
