Leah Schroder wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I am conducting research on 17-20th Century European artists with disabilities
> and how these disabilities may have impacted their work.  I am in the process
> of trying to located any previous research done on this topic, as well as
> publications addressing the same.  Is there anything out there?  Any
> information would be of incredible value.
>
> Thank you,
> Leah Schroder


Dear Leah,

        This sounds like a very broad if important topic!  I don't mean
to be critical, and it may be that you are just starting to do research
and depending on the responses you get you may address specific
disabilities.  I can't cite any published sources offhand, but in terms
of physical handicaps, I can think of several French impressionists:
Edgar Degas at the end of his life and with failing eyesight turning to
pastel and sculpture; aging Renoir with brushes strapped to his
arthritic(?)hands who also began sculpture due to failing eyesight, yet
another whose eyesight failed was Claude Monet. The post-Impressionist
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was lame and crippled after he broke both legs
at age 14 and ceased to grow. . .  For American artists, Maurice
Prendergast (1858-1924) suffered a hearing loss as an adult; Horace
Pippin (1888-1946) painted despite paralysis in his right arm due to a
WWI sniper's bullet; more recently the artist Chuck Close (b. 1940) has
continued to paint perhaps the best work of his career despite becoming
nearly completely paralysed in 1988 from an injury to a spinal blood
vessel . . .  and of course there are artists who have overcome mental
disabilities to create significant art.

Good luck to you.  You got me thinking about a very inspiring topic!
I will look forward to other responses to your query.

sincerely,
Kathleen Hutton, coordinator of education
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC
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