Eugene Grasset - La Morphinomaneby, 1897
A surprisingly powerful image of a morphine addict, considering this was made in the 1890s. Grasset's lithograph can be seen at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles at the exhibition "Tea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914."
"Whether as angelic creatures or exotic lures, women filled the imaginations of artists and constituted the great subject of fin-de-siècle art. Women who had leisure time could afford to relax with an afternoon cup of tea, as seen in a Mary Cassatt etching, while those facing harsh economic struggles might resort to morphine, as depicted by Eugène Grasset. These extremes, and the positions in between, set the parameters for the exhibition of approximately 100 works, which includes prints as well as rare books and ephemera (such as menus, theater programs, and music scores). This array of objects gives the exhibition an intimate quality, revealing much about how women-and men-lived their lives during a time of great social upheaval and artistic innovation."