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    The Features of Insanity, as seen by Géricault and by Biichner BRENDAN PreNDEviLie, “What is it in us that whores, lies, steals and murders? ‘We are puppets, our strings pulled by unknown forces; we ourselves “The five paintings by Géricault termed ‘portraits of the insane” make exacting demands on the beholder, not through the painter's having invested them with expressive force so much as through his having refrained from doing so, in an intense effort of. description (Figs. 7-5). His subtle responsive adjust- ‘ments of technique and approach stand out as variations within. a. consistent scheme. With the “Kleptomaniac’ of Ghent (Fig. 1), his handling adds agitation to the signs of the man's dishevelment — strangely at odds with his rigid mouth; inthe case of the elderly Louvre woman, on the other hand (Fig. 2), he builds a face with a denser and a somewhat waxen surface.’ ‘This descriptiveness contributes to the paintings’ power partly because i Fig. 1. Théodore Géricault: ‘Le monomane du vol (klepto- maniac)’, 1819-23, ol, 61.2 X $0.2 cm. Museum voar Schone Kunsten, Ghent, 96 nothing, nothing! . ..° (Georg Buchner, Danton’s Deait)! y renders in the faces clear signs of distress or? abstractedness, qualities we should notice even had: not been reported, perhaps correctly, thatthe fi individuals are inhabitants of an asylum, shown in: the guises of their insanity. Of more decisivez portance is the fact that the sitters’ gazes turn? towards the invisible objects of their preoccupations 10 that we fel ourselves to be looking at them Irom az hauls her is reduced to that mechanical function — brute traction. (We must not overlook the par played by Géricault’s crayon: that palpable black- ness isthe real-imaginary substance of his London 3 reveries- held in the bags of black coal hauled by the 3 laden yet fantasmic Goal Waggon.) In certain earlier images, for example the Faction- naire Suisse, a lithograph of 1819,” Géricault had = presented figures whose mutilation put bodily exist- 2 ence starkly in evidence. In the London lithographs © it is as though entire figures are themselves like # severed limbs, visually isolated from their surround- ings. Géricault achieves a clarity that is almost = violent. In. Entrance to the Adelphi Wharf (Fig. 12), 4 Where the horses pull nothing, all their weight bears downwards onto the hooves, so clearly shown, = clattering on the cobbles. Bul this clarity does not bring greater understanding. The inexorable move- = ment of the animals is away from us; their gaze is hidden from us and we do not see where they go, = framed by the dark archway. The colliers to9 are turned from us, and are shrouded, Where they are going, in fact, is underground. A tunnel descends beneath Robert Adam's Royal Society of Ans to the arches under his and his brother's entrepreneurial Adelphi development down to wharves, storage for coal and wine, stables for horses and even cattle, the only illumination coming from occasional light shafts and from the opening to the docks on the riverside. It was described in the nineteenth century as a sub- peu “we Oxon An Jw 105 Bish Library 24 Sop 2018, 03:25 (BST) Fig. 9. Théodore Gériault: ‘The Coal Waggon’, 1821, pencil and watercolour, 22 X 24 em, British Museum, London. terranean city and was indeed designed as such, ‘with streets following and named after the ones above. Here are the hidden workings ofthe city. Ieis a dank place, sometimes flooded by the river, dangerous to wander in alone; (during the great Chanist. demonstrations, cannons were hidden here). Perhaps Gériault discussed it with his friend Brunet when they were companions in London. ‘The five portraits ofthe insane seem to me to bear affinities with these other works; but now the confinement is more evidently enacted by observa- tion itself, which holds these individuals s0 as to study what lies concealed in them, as though it could be brought to the surface. They are portraits, yet show people neither known as individuals to the painter, nor presented as such to public view. Correspondingly, their gaze is oblique; we do not share their vision and their gaze is not reconciled with ours. We cannot see or follow where they look, can only apprehend from outside the attitudes in Which they have been arrested “There is a dissonance between being and seeing, ‘The individuals appear to us both as gazing fixedly and as fixed by a gaze, and their features show a rigidity — arising through this twofold fixation — Toe Onn at pee = 1 ‘which contradicts the vitality released in the paint; fan inherent restlessness is immobilized, and the immobilizing has to do with looking. ‘Although realist methods in painting commonly do engender stillness, no such dissociation of being from seeing normally results, but rather the opposite. The formal stillness is seen to coincide with a muting of action in the depicted scene which arises as if naturally and of its own accord; often, acts of quiet attention are portrayed, in harmony with the viewer's own atten- tion.* But that is precisely not true here. The ness of the five individuals is presented as neither natural nor voluntary, suggesting that attention falls upon them, rather than conspiring with them. Vision interrupts the continuity of their lives, reducing a moment of their being to symptomatic fragments, Géricaulr’s realism evokes significant develop- ‘ments in the culture and science of his time through showing a concern to bring life itself within the [ame of an objectfying attention, which isolates and immobilizes. Georg Biichner, whose work I want to compare with that of Géricault, incorporated just such a definition of realist vision in his narrative on the insanity of the dramatist Jakob Lenz; speaking of ws ‘Supoied by he Bran Library 24 Sep 2019, 09:25 (BST) yune'dno uapeae|edas wos pepeeRINS 0 fa eLac951 961 ENGEL 6102 quiidag yz uo ssn pooge Fig, 10. Théodore Géricault: “The Plasterer's Horse’, 1823, lithograph, 24.9 X 35.7 em; printed by Villain, after water- ‘colour by Gericault. his preference for art which followed life, Lenz says that it would be wonderful to bea Medusa’s head, so ‘as to tum an uncomposed natural scene — one Beatant gil dressing another's hat — into a stone sroup. This vivid and paradoxical image” appears in the context of a body of writing whose author recurrently tackles the theme of insanity and does so in accompaniment with reflections on science, politics and art closely relevant to various strands of the discussion so far. I want to tun to Biichner's ‘work at this point, because of the striking extent 10 sehich he addressed themes similar to those found in Géricault and particularly in order further to elucid= atc the question of the framing of life, which Biichner reflected on repeatedly. ‘The paradoxes of lifesin-death and of its converse, which, as T have tried to show, underlie Géricault’s realism, also appear in various guises in Biichner's writing. It isa motif which recurs variously in the culture of the times, and with Biichner, as with Géricault, it appears in association with themes of subjection. m1 The lines from Buchner’ play Danton’ Death which appear at the beginning of this article have been ‘quoted frequently. They have often been taken as conveying a message of fatalism but, as the Biichner scholar John Reddick points out, such a reading fails to take account oftheir dramatic context.” The lines are spoken by Danton, who has awoken fom a nightmare, gone to the window and heard the word ‘September’, as has his wife entering the room — although the voice which she heard was that of Danton himself. In his present moment of tial, Danton haunted by the memory ofhis responsibil ity for the September massacres of prisoners. Prompted by his wile — ‘The monarchs were only forty hours from Paris’ — he exculpates himself, and his concluding speech in the scene, whence the quotation comes, expediently removes responsibil- ity. Danton’s words arise from his sense of guilt and hhe uses them to calm himself. Itis worth noting that the sentences quoted occur in the middle of this “Tae Oxon Sa Jas = 181 ‘Suppi by the Bish Library 24 Sop 2019, 0825 (BST) feonuea'dre suapene ath oy popeuneg 102 squerdes z vo sen pos ina ano Ka cuaLUstieeeLN=esEge Fig. 11. Théodore Gércoult: ‘A Paraletic Woman’, 1821, lithograph, 222 % 31.5 em, speech, with a space separating them; the first one relates to his troubled conscience, but the second, on the note of powerlessness, turns back towards'his present predicament, as a man facing arrest and execution. The German text of this sentence begins with the word ‘Puppen’, allowing a percussive releasing of sound and breath as Danton finally dis charges the tension he eel At the same dine, he ‘word acquires added emphasis ‘The question Biichner makes Danton ask, ‘What js iin us that whores, lie, steals, murders”, voices an important recurring theme of his writing, one ‘whose contemporary echoes in medical science — particularly respecting criminality — he was fully ware of Bichrer, whore father was doctor to the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, knew about psychiatry and satirized its methods in the character ‘of the doctor in Woyzeck. His own scientific studies, fon the nervous system, were pursued under the auspices of Natuphilosephie, which entailed dedicat- ing analysis to the construction of an ideal, universal order. He expressed his opposition to mechanistic, ‘teleological’ science in the Trial Lecture’ he gave at Zurich university in 1836, The same attitude informs his mockery of the Doctor in Woyzeck, who treats a man a5 a machine; but in the context of his plays, and Lenz, mechanism coincides with the ideal, “on Oca An jnne — We 198 through allusions to a stereotyped idealist stagecraft ‘whose orchestration of appearance yielded ‘mere human-like automata or puppets." Danton’s ‘Puppen sind wir... echoes a remark he hhad made only two scenes previously, also referring to the slaughter of prisoners. He’ and Camille ‘Desmoulins had just passed among some promen- faders and one young gentleman had stepped back rather fearfully from a puddle while speaking highly to his companion of a certain theatrical production. ‘Camille begins the new scene: 1 tell you, if they don't have it all set up in wooden imitations, put about in theatres, concerts, at exhibitions, they have neither eyes nor ears for anything. Carve a rarionette, whote every string can be seen that sets iin ‘motion, and whose joints creak in iambie pentameter ai every step — What character! what truth. just asin ‘drama and in opera]... Oh, Art! [But then] take people ‘out from the theatre into the street: ob, miserable reality! ‘They forget their Lord God in favour of his bad imitators wo 1Aet2, Se. 3) Pygmalion’s creation, he adds, came to life but was unable to bear children. Danton chimes in: ‘And artists treat nature like David, who coldbloodedly ‘drew the victims of the September massacre, thrown, ‘out of La Force into the street, saying ‘I'm catching 107 ‘Suppid by he rsh Libary 24 Sep 2019, 08:25 (BST) 6102 sues 72 uo ean p280180 Jno Ma EL8L981/96/9LMERGAe aN feORID dno DRDPEDE/ SH CH papeOLHCG Fig, 12. Théodore Géricault: ‘Entrance tthe Adelphi the last ewitehes of life in these scoundrels” Perhaps Danton is trying to displace the guilt for his own coldbloodedness; in which case, as with ‘Puppen sind ‘wir ...', the image has a twofoid use: it signals the character's anxiety, and it contributes to a dialectic beween art and living reality which is central to Bichner’s writing, Biichner runs a risk in causing this comment on David to be voiced, since it could be argued that in Danton’s Death he too is ‘catching the last twitches of life. .; not only here, but throughout his work, life is seen to keep close company with death. And Biichner t00, like the notional painter, shows his characters within a frame — that created by the plays or the novella — and thus as semblances, creations of art, Puppen. However, if we exa Biichner's practice in drama and ficion, we discover that eso relevant conditions always apply: one is that the artist recurrently draws attention to the fact that action is beheld, held in a frame; the other is that he ‘works less to satisfy the demand for lifelikeness than to induce in reader and spectator a more engaged kind of recognition. By contrast — designedly — 108 Wharf’, 1821, lithograph, 25.3 X 31 om. I : ; i 5 g i Biichner’s apocryphal ‘David’ is able to feel that what he draws has nothing to do with him; thes dwindling life of the ‘scoundrels’ is not connected § with his own, and his framing of them enacts an absolute separation and a domination, which he = takes for granted. ‘David’ figures the beholder, as dof Phillipeau’s words later, invoking a Godlike pers spective on human suffering.” g God sees all, and so does the chronicler; Biichner’s writing is notable for is close reliance on = documentary material. In Danton ’s Death he drew on = documented history, incorporated passages quoted = from actual speeches; with Woyzeck, he took an actual murder ease and a psychiatrist's report as raw |. For his narrative on the insanity of the dramatist Jakob Lenz, Biichner quoted directly from the miemoir of Pastor Oberlin. While Oberlin was certainly not an uninvolved witness, his account is basically a factual record, artiessly written, ‘Therein lies a key to Bichner’s interest in using such sources, for in all cases they constitute uncrafted material, recording actual people and events, belonging to public record; bare evidence. To Ora Ar fs = 1 108 ‘Supplies bythe Brtsh Library 24 Sep 2019, 08:25 (8ST) Yet it is not merely by virtue oftheir having been actual, historical, individuals that his characters acquire life, and succeed in engaging us. Bichner’s realism is neither documentary nor transparent; he finds various ways of drawing our attention to the arificiality of what we read or see, while in the process giving prominence to the kinds of seeing or framing that are enacted within the ext itsell. We do not, asin simple illusion, directly ‘behold’ Danton, or Woyzeck, or Lenz, but rather see them as being beheld and’ framed. This inner witnessing serves both to remind us of the character's provenance — from ‘the street, not made up — and to establish a constraint against which the character asserts independent life. We see Danton as ‘History’ sces him, his actions being interwoven with speeches at the Convention and in the Tribunal, quoted from historical record. He exists with relerence to the frame called ‘Danton’, which lies open in the public space in which Biichner’s presumptive audience conduct their lives, as well asin that which they immediately behold Throughout the play, he also performs actions which do not feature inthis record, by way of scenes, often very brief, whose disparateness allows dillerent dimensions of his character to come into view. In this process, Biichner addresses the ‘question of what itis that defines human existence. In the ‘September’ scene with his wife, at home, Julie asks her distraught husband, ‘do you know ‘who T am2", and he replies, ‘A human being, a woman, my wife. And the world has five continents Action and words touch certain familiar and ‘customary limits of everyday existence — the house, through which wife hears husband, the window he goes fo, the sounds from the street. Allis losing its Stability: ‘You're trembling ..."‘... What do you ‘expect when the walls begin to speak, when your body breaks apart...’ Yet in an earlier scene, with the prostitute Marion, Danton had viewed such dissolution as ecstasy: I wish I were part of the ether, 0 [could bathe you in my flood’. This scene makes no direct reference to the progress of events. While the world framing Danton’s acts as citizen, husband, Iriend is seen to break down, a different dimension of reality is glimpsed simultancously, and it too is chaotic. The scene mostly comprises Marion’s long speech recounting her own life, which develops into an image of life itself, since itis the history of her Sexual existence, She describes adolescence: ‘I looked down at my body; it sometimes seemed to ime as i were double, then melted back into one.” With the sexual awakening, ‘I became like @ sea which devours everything, and draws itself deeper and deeper.’ Her first lover drowned himself, and she wept, seeing his body carried past. Other people she concludes, have Sundays and workdays, cele- bate birthdays and the New Year, but she knows no recommencementor change, ‘Iam ever the same. ceaseless longing and grasping, a blaze, a stream.” (Act 1, Se. 5). Life has no paragraphs, Marion says, and she indeed speaks without a pause, torrentially, Dan- ton’s response is more formed —~ ‘your lips have eyes, Marion tells him. In Danton’s speeches, the language of the Convention is persistently played off. against that ofthe brothel, reflecting a more general dualism in the text. This is signalled in the tite, Dantons Ted, where ‘Danton’, who belongs to History, dates, evens, is paired with death — which Danton will claim is indistinguishable from life (as Marion describes it), Danton’s historical persona, the ‘stone face’ Camille accuses him of contriving for posterity, is sustained to the end, when the char- acters proceed to the guillotine, ‘making classical allusions as readily as they voice obscenities Biichner’s aim here, as he wrote in a letter to his family, was to ‘get as close as possible to history as it actually happened’, showing it via characters who live and breathe.® In that way, the dry events, statistics, stone face, are seen as historical in a more dynamic sense, and life is apprehended Meetingly through the texture of fact and rhetoric. Biichner’s subject is by intention ‘near to the audience, and it is on this basis that T want to compare him with Géricault and Balzac — chiefly in terms of work of theirs that I have mentioned. All three, in different ways, narrate the present, or the near-present; there are common themes and, broadly, a shared historical frame of reference, one defined by the French Revolution and by its afier ‘math, a period during which restored o persisting old régimes held power. All could in some respects be described as realists, and yet what each presents is far from being plain or factual — however docu: -mentary or scientific the sources. As to the science of. their period, it too reveals an unsettled constitution: the uncertainties concerning ‘life’ were not to haunt the confident empiricsts and positivsts of the later century. All three narrate their present by means of characters in whom the processes of history are seen to intersect with those of life (and death). The sense of life and history that they convey is tragic (yet not fatalisti), in that it implies a gravitation towards death; life is gravid with death What might disincline us to take these artists as unqualified realists is the disorienting trace of the irrational, the unnameable." This brings us to the theme of insanity and tothe question of naming, and in those two respects we can make a comparison in which all three artists participate. The question of naming arose, as we have seen, with Géricaul’s five portraits, whose five reported titles specify cases of monomania. However uncertain may be the applic- ability ofthis label, some kind of naming of ‘cases’ is evidently entailed, and itis seen to fall upon those it identifies; they receive it obliquely. No such uncertainty affects the fictional case of Balthasar Claés, whom Balzac expressly deseribes as 2 ‘monomaniac, but here too the character is at @ tangent to the title: the text does not exhibit his madness so much as hide it** His mania grows 109 ‘Suppl by the Bish Library 24 Sep 2019, 09:25 (BST) 102 auoidos 2 vo sn peogeiea do Ke £18206) /96 1/8. NeNNAGE-SaNe anu Eno epRDR)cEdhy Waa BapaeRUNOD invisibly and unstoppably, behind the paragraphs. Even while we read the narrative of rational ‘endeavour, patient reconstruction, we sense its being undermined. Biichner's Woyzeck, a character based fon a recent murder ease that the dramatist had read about, in which a Dr. Carus had been required to write teports as co the eriminal accountability ofthe accused, is told by the Doctor in the play that he is a “beautiful example’ of aberatio mentlis paras i.e, ‘monomania, The name falls on him in a language the Doctor knows he will not understand. Woyzeck, a Tragedy offers a. particularly good ‘example of this naming or framing process at work in the text Woyzeck is a common soldier, seen to beat the bottom of the social heap; astruting drum- major gets off with Marie, the mother of his child ‘The Doctor and the Captain, being officers, address Woyzeck in’ the third person, as ‘EP (he). This, practice was apparently standard in German armies atthe time, and no doubt a contemporary audience would have taken the usage for granted, but Biichner finds a way of making it stand out. In a scene where he is addressing Woyzeck in his usual patronising way, the Captain passes a moralizing comment on the soldier's having fathered a child out of marriage, and in his reply Woyzeck quotes Christ's words, ‘suffer litle eildren ...”. Unthink- ingly, (falling like the audience into Bichner’s trap) the Captain exclaims, ‘Was ragt Br da!” — ‘What is hhe [= are you} saying!’, which could sound as though he were referring to Christ. Hearing the ambiguity, the Captain first blames Woyzeck — “He's got me muddled ...” then tres to clarify, by shifting to the accusative: ‘Wenn ich 0g: Es so mein ich Ihe, Thn’ iterlly, ‘When I say: he, what I mean. is him, him’ — so that ‘him’ now hes to do the job of meaning ‘you’. These are the lengths to which the Captain will go so as to avoid addressing Woyzeck in the second person.” ‘The matter at issue between the Captain and Woyzeck had concerned self-control; in effect, the Captain advises Woyzeck to address his own body in the third person, and give commands. Precisely the same question arses in a scene with the doctor, who has seen Woyzeck pissing against a wall, when he hhad been paid by the doctor to stay on diet of peas, and provide specimens for analysis (Biichner caricatures an experiment conducted by Justus Liebig). Woyzeck says that it's nature, and the Doctor insists that nature is subject to the will® The same comedy is enacted elsewhere, at a sideshow with a trained horse, ‘a professor at our university’, when the horse demonstrates his animal nature in the middle of the Showman’s presentation.” In his conversation with the Doctor, Woyzeck ties to explain how nature exceeds human understanding, asking him whether he has ever caught sight of ‘der doppelien Natur’, and this ‘doubled’ nature echoes a phrase used by the Showman in the seene with the horse, before nature assers itself — ‘der doppelten Raison’. Woyzeck’s sense of nature is mystical; he 110 asks the Doctor whether he has noticed the patterns that mushrooms make on the ground; at the beginning ofthe play, in the open country, he senses 2 mysterious sound, or stirring. Combined in the character of Woyzeck, at the centre ofthe play, are the themes of nature and the body. As a common soldier, Woyzeck has put his body atthe disposal of the army, of his officers. But nature undoes this from within, as the play develops, undermining the edifice of military discipline and regulation, It is this impersonal order that dis- tibutes names; in a leave-taking scene with his friend Andres, Woyzeck finds a piece of paper in his, belongings, giving his full name, rank, regiment, birthday. am now, the 20th of July, aged 30 years, 3 7 months and 12 days’, he says — a remark that might put us in mind of Marion in Danton’ Death Such regulation is foreign to nature, and nature, in this play is counterposed tothe social order, with its 3 naming power, the body named Woyzeck i tragically situated between the two. Earlier, suggested that, during this period, ants’ ands Scientists’ versions of the body were capable off calling forth political echoes; asit happens, Biichner3 himself used the political body metaphor in theS insurrectionary pamphlet he wrote with Ludwig Weidig. in 1834, The Hessian Messenger. Division of irship is uncertain, but it was probably he who & listed Hessen state taxes and referred to the money a a ‘blooduithe drawn from the body of they people’ ‘An army is a body of men, and soldiers — o rather exsoldiers — constituted a significant new feature in the political landscape of post-Napoleonie Europe, as a potential source of dissent and even = insurrection, ‘The armies in question had been national, drawn from the peoples — their blood-2! tithe. Returned to 2 destitute evlian life, such men= might constitute a threat to political order. Geri caus Factiomaive Susie cvokes this threat, ‘The s period of Gérieaul’ visits to England was climactic 2 for English radical politics; former soldiers were? prominent in the Cato Street conspiracy of 1820. = Both culers and insurvectionists were ready to spill blood. The violent imagery of Danton’s Death, while traeto the time of the play's action, also holds forthe = succeeding period, a does the bloodiness of Wayzeck @ — which Begins with the image of a severed head rolling down a slope.” ‘The sheet of drawings by Géricault that 18 mentioned earlier (Fig. 73) contains studies showing = military subjects ofa kind that he was shorly to take up in lithographs. The formal separation oftolitary ‘commanders, on the vertical axis, from the com manded, lying across the lower part of the sheet, allords comparison with Buchner, Like Bichner, Géricault sees the soldier in terms of a double submission: he is under the yoke of authority, but also subject to nature. The commanders rise up, the {roops submit to gravity; the sleeping figures put me in mind of Woyzeck, with his ear to the ground, ‘Tee Quon A Jute — 1195 ‘Suppl by the Bish Libery 24 Sop 2019, 08:28 ST) Fig. 13, Théodore Géricault: sheet of compositional studies, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London. hearing messages. In his lithographs of military subjects, Géricault represented Scenes of retreat in which everything that ideally characterises. the soldier is contradicted. Bodies of men and animals formerly under regulation and command come 10 embody chaotic decline: nature dominates, in the fmptiness around them and in the dissolution Nisibly gaining — their retreat being its advance. Unfors arin tatters, bodies are mutilated, with tne man becoming the eyes of his comrade and others heaped together like sacks in a cart while the fons puling them tur on each other” The definitively reliable has given way; the definitively orderly, a body of soldiers, has become an inchoate bodily mass. As withthe London lithographs, we are shown figures in slow, impeded movement, in Submission to what they cannot command. Again, the motif of blinding appears: like Marion, they know no beginnings or endings; as with Woyzeck, name and rank have lost their meaning, as some- thing else summons them. ‘We might say that, at this point, they not know who they are, rather 3 we speak of those we term insane, They only know the narrow path they move along, They represent something fearful, in so far as loss of identity, oF ofthe sense oft, is fearful tous. ‘The space through which Géricaul’s London figures move does not know its occupants, any more Ars ens 195, 6.181718, pencil, pen and brown ink, 21.6 X 34 em. than does that in which his five portrait subjects are placed, That is the harshness in all these images. Nonetheless, they at the same time intimate some- thing of the marvellous: in the rich darks defining the unseeing Piper whose dying exhalations echo around him as he draws breath; in the embers of ‘energy that flare mutedly in the painted surface of the Lyons portrait. With Géricaule’s five portraits, identity (the order ‘of appearances) imposes itself on being, by virtue of a harsh condition, one entailing confinement; but we see the individuals as iflooking along the path of that confinement, unseeingly, without view of an external object, That which lives on in them is distinet not only from the labels imposed on them, but from ‘whatever public and familial identities they have relinquished or forgotten. Biichner’s own extended verbal portrait of an individual similarly afflicted, Lanz, gives naming significant role, from the moment that Lenz, arriving at the mountain village ‘of Waldbach, presents himself to Pastor Oberlin.” He introduces himself as a friend of their mutual acquaintance, Kaufmann, and has to be asked for his own name. The pastor mentions plays by someone called Lenz, but Lenz merely asks not tobe judged by them. When he has been staying there happily for some time, Kaufmann visits, and Lenz is at first disturbed by the presence of one who knows m ‘Supplied by the Brsh Library 24 Sep 2019, 08:25 (8ST) so dhe quopeon ret way peCBERNON, 5 g 2 8 his history (though subsequently excited at being prompted to discuss art); Oberlin had welcomed him’ without knowing im, When Kaulmann suggests that he might retum home to assist his father, Lenz reacts with panic. The mountainous region where he is staying with Oberlin, and where he is not known, constitutes a benign environment for him, Here there is no harsh disjunction between himself and others, since those he encounters have no past Lenz to recall. The references to seeing here are of the tenderest sort; open and radiant gazes, unreservedly receptive, run through the text. The narration sets Lena in the gentlest of third persons, via Oberln’s account, and interweaves Lenz's own visions. Furthermore, his wanshiguring glimpses of his surroundings are searely at odds with the kind ‘of landscape in which they occur, while his sense of the closeness of the supernatural is shared by Oberlin and by others he encounters. Nonetheless, che narrative vividly presents Lene’s suffering, which increases as the text unfolds; the violence of his seisures is strongly portrayed. Lene, ‘whose vision of the beauty of life illuminates the wext, is visibly destroyed from within, and is let in desolation. Both the illumination and the destruc tion are beyond naming. ‘The mountain setting in hich they take place are strange to him, and he isa stranger there. ‘The kinds of domestic anchorage which Danton invokes ina moment of crisis are absent throughout, Lenz ends in a state of destcu- tion which brings him close to. Géricaul’s figures, who also dwell in anonymity: ‘his existence was (0 him a necessary burden — inthis way, he lived on. Géricault (in the works discussed) and Biichner resemble each other in imporant ways, even though their respective productions were mutually- independent. They portray modem subjects, and do s0 in terms of a mode of ordering and presenta- tion which is impersonal and disjunctive — and which we would now perhaps recognize as modern —associable with “the public’, *history’, news- papers, oficial repors. In Buchner, this ordering is Brought to our attention through the themes of automatism and mechanism, rhetoric and regula tion, art and the onloooker; in Géricault, it is manifested in the stark juxtaposing of figures in his urban subject. Yet the formality and artifice do not convey irony of a modernist kind, since both anists are concemed in an essential way with living reality. Though this concern evolved within the distinct contexts oftheir respective bodies of work, it had a common basis in the existence of a wider preoccupation with ‘life’ in the culture of their times. What made their dialectical kinds of realism timely, and possible, was the enactment of a dialectic centering upon the living body in that culture and in contemporary politics: soul versus machine, freedom versus subjection. This is not to say that such dilemmas subsequently disappeared, bbut rather that they found particularly. forceful Gefintion at atime before modernity took a more 112 homogeneous form: monarchic and aristocratic government still held on and, in science, Natur- Philosophie retained validity. ‘The two artists are most directly comparable in terms of their respective strategies. Their methods were dialectical: neither of them constructed ‘meanings thetorically (Danton’s Death portrays the breaking of an orator, and of his eloquence). Biichner's fragmentary” scenography, Géricault's disjunctive compositions, afford no resolution, even after the beholder’s engagement in their dialectic. In the case of the five portraits, there is an unresolved- ness in so faras the individuals are sen, like Lenz, 38 living out their sentences. Iis the continuing — and the discontinuing — which is important. The pres vailing sense of the work is tragic, the processes involved are chaotic, and whatis to be apprehended behind the paragraphs, through and around the distinct forms, is nameless and formless, Those whoz ive in anonymity, in the thied person, or who turn erom their given names, are the bearers of thay ‘which knows no beginnings or endings. HW Notes 1 Din Tl et 2S The comet is guaon Wi etc, le Te ra nea os ‘Sindy fa pr en ae Aunt of Hs ieee aan Aa : 2 Rss Cen, Chal, nbsp rs 9 Go cin) gp 17-8 i te dag ‘i oie con cdipling pings Gens won nt pied eke Cac Bown Sse mm dg eo honey nai and Tees cabot nh clanon dpe Loe an a im 2 2 Aboug ence ha be pra were pained ety obese by arsine ee nog ‘Scot Maver Heme ge A eo ‘aw can ie How BOT Tp Be Ghting tod beckett the Spi uate pots ‘htt cpoe see ety and hence eee ‘eit Ts pining nay hee doom sens Com saroche being seth) sg wea ‘Sintnton (tetany a Ma foe he png tRiytesme nay rhe tect eens wth Gen ore tc esate be Tp tx te ea ee ‘Se Te guess al pando esa sees we OE te) ape td ee! ony dy Love Vines leer, publihed by Brno Chenigue in the catalogue af he 1951 Grad Palos Gent exhibition (R. Mich Gant, Spain Laver and Bran Cheigne, Pvs 191); sen Docent pp. 3223.11 wes rs published in La Chord A 4:6 Cano, 3 January 164 pp 3-3 Cin Ges 6 ands bar Gece by Louis Vir, 5. Marae Miler, "Gia poi ofthe insane, ora of he Werk ond Conroe, TV, YMG pp SHE George, we had shown oonanding poe tx den, ever chuaned «ple po dite he prorage of his techer xg in ‘ese pate dink he weed 2.The Earl of Brsgewaer, wo died in 189, ea beques fo the ‘commision facts by scietts prepared i emonsmit ‘lar epee Fld, the Power, Wada and Gendt of Go at ‘maneacd in he Crean 1S EJ. Geol, De joe (Pai 1820), 2 Toe Oot ara — 89 15 ‘Suppied by the Brlsh Library 24 Sep 2019, 08:25 (8ST) Ga’ phase quate by EG Boringin A Hiro Exprineal ‘big (New Vor, 19ST) 9 37. Callan Sparchem publ heir ‘Arata HPs de Syme Newer Gil to Conon om Prisatr in 1810-161. Call work, according 10 Boring conunbedsgfeny othe rend toward moving ming ay om ‘he conc of he wnat Cares aul wo the concept of he nore meri era function’ (Boing, op p38, George ries of "ame mate du corps in Del oli, 3 ne to Phyl de Syne Nees, Spleen Cee, Panis 11, ‘3, Grorgeascse birel with ‘gic’ at gana mechani’ and “spins, inthe contemporary seni debate concerning the “lence evi: See the tur the cena ie had een 3 ena topic o duroninsevetrelatedsciene Bel she diversity ews eld surveyed in seve of the etapa x A. Cunsiagham and N. Jaeine (eu), Remon od he Scr Carbide, 190) ‘Asuna Ces Blne, one fhe docs who belped seul procure bie and limbs for sty purpnes owas MA. Dot [ier somone a ghrenolog see 1991 Cand Pais exalogue (one 4,7. 208Changernent atl 1. Len Ener, Gl hs Life and Work (Landon, 98D), p28; sec alt Grand Pas eaaloge (ona. 138, 386. i. Guariy bent Quien te Fes (Pais Slon, Lowe, Pst 1 November 810) TD 'See Alber Bors, At mon Age of Boapron (Chica, 19), 9.315990. Dib, Napaten Sogn (Landon, 197) cid By Bie opp 672 m8 15. Le Rat dl ae exbised inthe Salo, 25 Augus 119, a5 ‘scene de nnufage. For 2 Bnehvabsened scour of Ocal: fenderig ofthe body, wh relrence ta hi pining and eer, ‘lang the ve pity ee Thome Crow's even ofthe Grad Pala exhibition, Roman Vine In Atri, Fesrury/March 1992, 09, p58, 1, Jean-Bapine Hey Savigny Oban Ee Pai eee Sai bres Ue Nae rg Ri Mats 86, tips 15. The quinn irom Belle Prece, 9. Blended tat Nit ‘uniatans orespand ar ozs possble wha would acaly be teen (hte the eye and pe ve ben dsoned by the anatoms Ieclon) ells Extn bes, Fnding nthe head of is ac ‘he mon commen and reper inribution athe Cro Arey ook ‘his she om i” Bel ion of a oder anling Within ware ready though not nevi) affords acrazation race: he wes “ila oti sn 16. Writrin Fut Magen, Noveriber 130, quoted by Maryn Ber in hein he todustion ter edo of he 188 te of Mary WillensenccaSheey'sFrentavtin ar the Haden Penctins (Landon, 1983), pea ae paricualy "The Shlys and Rada ‘Senet pp sv-am with {low closely here. 17. Bit pp sven Willa Uawrence FRS, Lens on the ‘Phyo, Zelaya he Neal Hay of Mom, dir ke Rt (ilige of Sogens (London, 189) In hi at eure, pp. =I rephng te the charges of Mew Aberehy' Laveence ea doubt om the rcended Haran sharin Hunter had dwn anon {the fc hat somach ues wl tack the trac il ony ir ath, eating te psy tat deren codons spl. living Sed dead. engi end oogenic mater) Mocking Abernethy’ eas of Serle band of French. phyilogi® intent on “dering ranking’ be obser atthe French "scm tbe coniered ou? [orl enemiesn ene asellarn plies Hislanguage resembles {Georges af 1209 he wer thas eth respec 10 "ial prope ‘Seni should ln thems ose simple sus of bration Uhatcenainghenomensoceurin cenain ong tnture (Later parol Iie Sook cencered wih difeesiaing human ype, runes a0 ug er; ote 18) TS CL Jun Goin, Col ond Clif: the Fuch Pirie Pf sien inthe Neth Cnty (New ark and Cambridge, 198), p25 ‘Nb oie (nt 38) aes entesive reference 1 Goss ook 19, Geog ie oust sha 3 delraon included oi il sould epee ser hs death (us demonstraing since Srospublsbed inthe dcr Gino de Meine Anne, ome XT, ar 82h p19 he renounced the maerilom hea poessed inhi Pyle tine nro 1821 He ha subequem fund it the phenomena fsemnambulam rool he euler adie “nr Aart — 198 oof einai prea ifefo mti esti. Ts i 1b ifonewihes the mal and Gad: (Dae | Mare 128), i. Nina Atanapogloe Kalle, ‘Oércul's severed heads and lb she Paes and Aesheteo he Sa, The AB, ESRIV. December 192 04, pp 599618. BL tds 22. The Chane’ of une 181 ecngnzed the principles ofibeny, gunly sed popeny. See Andel Jin and Andréjean Tide, mat nt Rea, 1815-1805 Eons Forer(Cambsie, 198), pp.108, 2: Quoted in Alan Spier, The Frch Cramton of 120 (Prien, 198, hy biel geneaaneconnoshope to do ene 10 Spiers Stal and complex account ofa feneston which yielded bilan Individual sehuerement ut, he ares amounted oa olen ure 24 For Genie Liber fais, see Nina Athanaogn= seller ‘Liter of the wor uniter Genus fends, ane La Be es eg’ Cact dt Beet, 6,90 118 pp. 227-202, Destine 90; ia eral edn ote 19, pecially C8. Fora fro penea aight ito the inporance of (cusve) Mal) socal "Trower in he pola nines eo he ped, se Spier, net 25. See nate 26, The pore could not all have teen pine a eer La Salpiteor Bet since these merece for women and me, fexpesineh. Charenton wan mined, and rected inmates of bgher ‘ul las One of Vado's ear eons stating tat George as ‘cori charge a La Sapte. However, 8 might be expec, ‘frais concerning Dr Lachine canbe confirmed Adolphe Lachine {vlad om the Pac aly in 1825, pling is theison x pie {Rb George bad some eaperse. He isthe ony radu of ta tne ding che yer in ewan, and ca be dened win Varo’ Thches on anus ater grounds There arewo posible Marechal fo Ihe same ped, on of wom, Jacque rang: Andet ao gracuated tn t80h, ving sent tine aw recidem todent $0 a Salpie ‘chines Natomas, AJ" 165) "Sx oe bins o i ps 201-209, pe vey al eu Sera Jet Browne "Darin tnd the Face of Mages in WF ‘your, Ponerang M. Shepherd (eds), Thr samy af Mans vl | (Condon, 188) pp. 131 BE Ved eielly by Mishel oven in Hite dls Fae Ae liu Pa 97D, 9p. 463% 29. See ihe vanaipt om Sir Alexander Morons ary ded 22 March In pblsed in Richard Hrs apd ida Macapne (es), "Thr Hand Yao nay (London, 198, p78 NO. Pars, Grand Flas, Gets 199, "Document p. 323-4 3h Mile, ‘Gencaults Pon ofthe Insane, p.B,repeoduced ithe Lyons pea, 5h Dense Ame tam, Maxge— Cincom mts (Pars, 1956), pp 26M Chior Sis he fund crcumstntl eience ending 12 contin her thery, ee ha ace "New Light on Gece ha ‘Travels and his Fende, 1816023, pl, 123, Jane 1986, pp 380- 1B, Ener p24; Alber Rolie, "Porcying Manama vo Senice the Aine Monaranis: Gércnlt and George’ The Oxford Ae Jounal le 1, 9.1199, pp, 79-91 HCE Regi Micha n 199 Gran Palas cataloge, p24. 3. Enel ander, 1403 he Lane of he Salon 18149137, 1m ncllecton tended fora mark on mental pes by De... ‘Thee an slbum af ponra drowingr by G-PAM. Cabrel inthe Cine der Etrpe, Binteque Nainale. Par wich shows ‘penal patents wore cates ae deeribed in be et. There are wo ‘linet syle One oe devin all which were Bought in 1931, car be dated abou 1823 They probably show patients tom Charenton, Scconting wo.) Adhemar (Un desamsteur pantont pour le vase Tomain Georges Fmaghir Made Cabrel, im Actes Mui ‘Renin Ome tn Gage Opec (Bueaset, 161, pp) In anal ginal pled 106, Exgiraldscusing hs ier in prysiogemy sad that he had commisined 200 drawings of i ih a iw to one day publabing bis abzeraions on the sbjet. See Miler, events Portas ofthe Insane’ p. 158; Eanerep. p35 35 Esquie Maries im Dune dr Sawer Mea, el. 30 {Pas Bp. 97-472 One of he drigs reproduced by Ete, 285, snd Gals, i, reproduces four p. 232 43 ‘Supe bythe Sesh Library 24 Sop 2018, 08:25 (BST) isi re\mmenage-ropejeoiuns de aauopece stn 04 papeoUHER 102 -uises yz uo 9m poaseien dno 69 e49205% ‘Gia’ Ponta of he Insane. 153 17, George published and acosed Engl ates isingsehing “cous moteles and. ‘cases physiques” among inmate of che Spare andthe Eola niin his thesis, uae re Cn 1 le Fate (Pate, 1820) Beamin Despre pedo tie lar Bice and. Sapte, suanulfing mater according, to oteions,oeraneigh-yea period: Coupe Rea Casa vod sper Bip Cine de Ps (at, 83) 38 Bo reproduced Goldstein, ip. 282 3 Hartera Macalpe, oh B12. 40. Geom of p38 5, Georgy ace ole in Distoeare deMéte, by Adon 2nd edn wl 13 Pai 136) p. 257 The ein wea 183 {2 hae wred the 1975 Calimard ein. On pp 250-7, Base escribesthe preeanCés as showing symptoms, scsi ofl he tategones of madness described by conemporny poh, nelding ‘monemani (psge quod not See theme i alae are ‘dace in rea depth by Maden Fagen in Ble ele Roce UA (Pa, 1948). Gal, George and the bere of agree are seid on pT “3. Auguste O°" (Brant) De Uniti atte ly Dena; De Impose Tra, Dele Rehee Mabie (Pa, 1099) Kas bled se Nowpage deo Miu, chee Conard. Brune publica {etkerpamphiet inte same year, oma tape whch was 6 eee (Georg Infrme de MieLgl be Mort ary “Hr See Atanasopow Kalle, "Uiberals le Word Unie 45, They were pomed by Hullmandel ond plished by Rocwetand Maria st Landon in 1821, unde he tle VARIOUS SUBJECTS / DRAWN FROM LIFE / AND ON STONE BY /J. GERICAULT. Detel ns. 29-1, inlaingieple (Loy Deel, Le peste Gaser ‘Mud (IR AN ne, Tome RV, Ther Gc, Pai, 1928) Seven ofthe pins ate date 1 February, the emir March, Ape tnd May. Mes fe subjects are equcnan and patel kare Englh woring (Shr) horece Geass aren o Bate edged wh 3 areealer, Elmore, wile he was working othe pi “Ws. The depiced hlplesne ofthe centralaptine in Le wa bore ‘he coming Blow ie eapable of engaging the we elie body ‘rae the reals werk tilt no och ponte "Tr George fs cused tis phenomena a Def Physi Swine Noes (te 9} poenally “prin topic i the ost ‘materi obi books “ui long ete in London whes Génzau syed here, nied London seme ke Lengo Wermaser Bre, 61, (Oat Reina Gol, Winterthur) with an animal pune’ ee fo shove; gurer are cece Halo te Prtomeath Sage Cath, 18 esme ellen), contains 2 revealing wagon the that in Gina lronnpiece or Von Sl See Tate Galley Jur Lerent Age (Condon, 198), nos 38, 34 “0, Fur an uptodate evonclogy of Géfeault’s vts Emp taking acount o€ Chnopher Sli retearhe,e the 191 Grand alas ctlogue, pp 250 Fe ofthe Cao Stet conspirators were hanged ousice Nengate on {May 1820, anithas ben supposed hat, [Cnc witnessed the execion, He may hve done ut he daving 5 nor comple i deal wi contemporary deespuons (we The Tab of Ahr Thaler... pb. Joho Farbrn, London 1620 ozary to Ener [p28 he acing man hot Tiewooe bore rejeing the eras apes). easly shows a muhiple Chesson a Newgate, bul these wer commen eines uth a the (egg of banknotes. Gercaul would dots ave etd of he even In gunion ait happens he Himors, wih woe ws tayo 121, ted in John Stree. ajcining Cato Steet thanstogiou-Ksloyer iscsi his deoving in elton othe abi flrs of Gia ‘eral ends, arguing tht eau represea priminary. ea ot 2 pont wit’ a propaandiaie sboliions inem. afslgbus to Craishan's ake onthe forgery ln See “Libel of the World Unie pp. so 50. During my rss ofthc, oud tht Neha Fred ves a rather sta ecoun ofthis drawing im Cars Rai (Cea, "360. 29) and makes» consprwon with he He pares. Fees ehods of analy, whi (ashe ema, ci p.3) end by-pass ‘he one sbjea of the worse dace, ees ie uefa) ‘ul view reat a ante and snpradosa. Hi lng term nudy of he reciprocity between paintespeatr ad pining ry ‘lean my present argent i ines ose primary IRponance fie sits work wan the gen medium Howe he ‘Sinmnoftcoling whch pvc hres cncted nc sar SI Sethe etry on shi drawing by Gila Kena Fach Drage SI-HIN Coven (Cure nae Cas, London, Yoiyn.24 p50 52. legume dice reading of Gres jotpesions — youth ad ge pve sd wea he ping cage see ond TRprocment ie neo he wall woul ere scun of theorist ana Pvestcing ey ire fem ao Van's oguman Tir Pence fis) ogg often Ad “3 Le Fain Saito La, De 16 rte The rt sepraen an ce ssa nthe oppestion Grtinined ni ‘Seldslder wth wsden ie peated om ring he La Set Gut pla tc Bact howscmpiga ede an order part shudersm : SP SEAS Roo: Ret on J Adam, 2 London, 208 vob 2p Ava nun Becton, Fhe Hof tend 8 Netw (Lendon, 50) 18-19 7 Sse Anin Fes eof bern i 5 For ting sso Bsn en inpereny pron and conti, se Robe C. Hoty amination ofthe Aontgpech in Bienes Law, Deh Vito Linton Geto 59989 pr itocet tb aac pin nling ey cers (a wih thre Len egress rather nthe penon of Lene ‘Satin ewer ny and ny Becher hows he peraone tal iptan fein ho be wed (ek me #9) We cas nave lab, autora. ‘4 St do not elim expeine im German et alone in the Sed of ‘ichnersdie I have ties the mom recent German ein of brincial ete K Porbater a a(t, Cog Bch — Woke Ugje (Monic, 1985 which contains very hal etal commentaries? and rept Bichnr® oure mater. lt man the ain wor of ‘modem Bichercholarhi, the two-volume Same Workrund Br ded by WR Lekman (Hamburg, 1957) ave conned vanowd, Engluh ranalaion the bet of wie the met een | Reddo ‘and ed) Gg Bier — Conplae Py, Lene ond Ode Weg {London 99) Most ariatrs ately keep a ea pene spe "have simpy sid seo Ite equaerce of meaning ia he shor tenons {have irtaaed ere For Reddy comment, ered 1 ove se his editon, 230,96, Sect he mare sing amen ie Bichoer plays appear i sir es ia his eters anda ne ‘ee hee (lever to his fan Minna. Jcgle, March 164, exact ‘ransnte in Readies edition, pp, 191) Mader sels tend ot ake the ew ta sch appending pare ta Sentiments in quesion represen he tathor’s dade views z ‘Sh For areen dicusin ete elaonhip betwen at and cence ln Bier se John Kedih,Teshatered whale: Gere Biche, ‘nd atepin Cninh a jig a 32-3 Reddick interpre passages the the one quoted below inte 3? “apresingBathne'sown intent Bl her than sr mere fering S fatto Danton) he prs o the wholes incpenn othe ari Bichoer at irtte relent ¢ 8. Ae Se 5" end, oe ae needa and er a aon the eat ose sgh ol one stung and Mehra an for ones eyes il with ingle great Coie design. In ces 08 ry argent [se this passage as having the fein of oking ‘poston out te aco; the adlence too wales fem a datnens {nd Boehner matallconsaing images othe beholder inhuman, Sopehuran), re ictfded to dtonen- There ae analogs ith ‘Grical in The Rate watching prayed ax urgent or phe might dca bebolers af he pining nace ofthe Heng tore ‘olen, deachment mec the mage at exieeanithens 1 Lene stayed with Pastor Ober in 178. Bache bined 3 cory of Obes ary account fom fends ane st chor, Aug ‘Siete, pulsed a veron In 18370 thie epintd in Wa wad Binge, Porbacher al, pp. S20, togeter wih another prsble source, namely eleva panes kom Goethe's tang ond Weed Lthmann pnts the Oberinaeeunt and Bihners eon on ing pase (Sinille Wore and Brie 1. p38) “us Owone ar Juma — 1 195 ‘Suppiod by the Bech Library 24 Sep 2019, 08:25 (8ST) {1 Dan Tad wa he only oe of Bienes wings ave Been published inhi iftime, under ht name (i 83S, Bucher ded of Sips in February 1837, Even then, his fend Guthowe bowled ‘heen inorder foetal censorship In alert hi iy 28 July WSS, Biche expeeed anger a various unnubored changes (oe Bichur — Compl Py, pp 2011), since they devacte fom the ‘medic ofthe dame, 2. Tre leer erred iin note 6 5. Consenely we igh iho question for example he efiiton of eae pid i he opinion ht Bain 3 asi ike an 2 ‘Se noe. Balas yperolic canes that Cs exces the ‘categories “monominia mes ony one of hit Being moods ot ‘ange At the cage gow him, the foreground pl unceasingly Clevelogs swans sere aed caberence opening legis piel [respec the cleltng Doge awyerie dren by meget the ‘ricer tay, and hi ude moliy of cranes thereby ‘emerge The ptiage in quenion ends with he rrmarh tat the old ‘Bass tein expetsans mee apparent onl (0 hore wh had know (hae rblime de bom, grand parle coeur, bea de vitge The receding devon rs: "Quengu ne pee lot animi ce pend ‘ge dlr er voyaten pl sous res a ite ead, ‘nai verre, un comsanenquitae y grovaet es aghesique {ela dimence, ou loa: de toute lee dence ensemble Tan ly Sppanisiat un epoir qu donna 8 Bashar Texprssion

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