My the sis examines representations of morphine use in French fin-de-si?cle (c.1880-1916) art and visual culture. Considering visual morphinomanie (morphine-mania) as an interdisciplinary, multi-functional device, I ex plore socio-political/historical debates on medicine, femininity, lesbianism, masculinity, domesticity and class. 

The research r eframes the influential nature of this widely neglected aspect of French society, drawing significant attention to the role it plays in aforementioned wider debates. I consider the morphine addict as a familiar, yet-to-be synthesised, motif in lithographic print culture, as decadently depicted in unfamiliar but institutionally-approved Salon paintings, as caricatures in newspapers, as sketches in medical texts and as wax models with pedagogic and diagnostic functions.

Whilst there is an increasing me dicalisation of art history, French morphinomanie has been ignored despite its prevalence in contemporary medical theses, newspapers articles, artistic culture and literature. The prevalent intertextuality and breadth of the morphinomane image type encapsulates the topic’s potential to make an urgent and original contribution to art historical scholarship.