The Art of Hypochondria

Graphic Arts

Exhibitions, acquisitions, and other highlights from the Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton University Library

Hypochondriacs

Posted by Julie L. Mellby on February 2, 2010 |

Princeton University’s science historian and an editor at Cabinet magazine, Professor D. Graham Burnett will be part of a panel entitled “The Art of Hypochondria” along with Brian Dillon and Marina van Zuylen on Tuesday, 9 February 2010, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York City. In honor of their talk, here are a few of our own hypochondriacs:

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), The Hypochondriac, 1788. Etching. Graphic arts, GC112, Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895. Inscribed: ‘The mind disemper’d - say, what potent charm, // Can Fancy’s spectre-brooding rage disarm? // Physics prescriptive, art assails in vain, // The dreadful phantoms floating cross the brain! - Until with Esculapian skill, the sage M.D. // Finds out at length by self-taught palmistry, // The hopeless case - in the reluctant fee, // Then, not in torture such a wretch to keep // One pitying bolus lays him sound asleep.’

Anonymous, The Cramers or Political Quacks, ca. 1762. Etching. Graphic arts, GC021 British Cartoons and Caricatures Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895. “Britannia tormented with discord and Strife … For Poison lurks their and deconstruction ensues”.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), after a design by George Moutard Woodward (ca. 1760-1809), A Visit to the Doctor, no date. Etching. Graphic arts, GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827),Wonderfully Mended. Should’t Have Known You Again!!, 1808. Etching. Graphic arts, GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895.

Charles Ramelet (1805-1851) after a design by Honoré Daumier (1808-1879), Le malade imaginaire. Je suis perdu…. il faut faire mon testament……. ils vont m’ensevelir… m’enterrer…. adieu!, 1833. Lithograph. Graphic arts, GA 2009.00086. Gift of William H. Helfand. From the series L’Imagination, no. 10 published in Le carivari May 21, 1833.

Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811), after a design by George Moutard Woodward (ca. 1760-1809), The Sailor and the Quack Doctor, 1807. Etching. Bound with Caricature magazine, v. 1. Graphic arts, Rowlandson R 1807.51F. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895.

George Cruikshank (1792-1878), Radical Quacks Giving a New Constitution to John Bull, 1821. Etching. Graphic arts, GC022 Cruikshank Collection. Gift of Richard W. Meirs, class of 1888. “Designed by an Amateur. May 25, 1820.”