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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2017; 75(07): 484-487
DOI: 10.1590/0004-282X20170067
HISTORICAL NOTE

The art and neurology of Paul Richer

A arte e a neurologia de Paul Richer
Péricles Maranhão-Filho
1   Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Hospital Clementino Fraga Filho, Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brasil.
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ABSTRACT

In the 1890s, one of Charcot’s most important protégés, Dr. Paul Richer (1849–1933), drew and sculpted a series of representations of the main types of nerve pathology. That series included drawings of pleomorphic hysterical crises and sculptures depicting patients suffering from labio-glosso-laryngeal paralysis and myopathy, as well as Parkinson’s disease. Richer was a resident at La Salpêtrière and, in 1882, became head of the Charcot museum. Early in his career, despite having no formal artistic training, he could represent masterfully, in drawings and sculptures, people’s tragic suffering from neurological diseases. Later on, with the same tools, he expressed the beauty of human movements in health.

RESUMO

Nos anos 1890, um dos mais importantes protegidos de Charcot, o doutor Paul Richer (1849-1933), desenhou e esculpiu uma série de representações figurativas dos principais tipos de patologia nervosa. Essa série incluiu desenhos de crises histéricas pleomórficas e esculturas de bustos representando pacientes que sofriam de doenças tais como: paralisia labio-glosso-laríngea, miopatia e doença de Parkinson. Richer foi residente de La Salpêtrière e, em 1882, foi nomeado chefe do museu de Charcot. Na primeira parte de sua carreira e sem qualquer treinamento artístico formal, ele conseguiu representar, como ninguém, em desenhos e esculturas, o trágico sofrimento das doenças neurológicas. Mais adiante, com as mesmas ferramentas, ele concebeu a beleza do movimento humano na saúde.

Paul Richer - drawings - sculpture - neurology - art
Paul Richer - desenhos - escultura - neurologia - arte


Publication History

Received: 12 January 2017

Accepted: 14 March 2017

Article published online:
05 September 2023

© 2023. Academia Brasileira de Neurologia. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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