Arts and Sciences in the 19th Century
Edgar Degas, Émile Gallé and Auguste Rodin
‘Whether or not we descend from apes matters little: the important thing is not to climb back up.’
In 1871, Charles Darwin applied the theory of evolution to humans (with The Descent of Man), causing quite a stir among his contemporaries who were not keen on the idea that humans are descended from apes. Shortly afterwards, Dr Jean-Martin Charcot revolutionised psychiatric medicine at the Salpêtrière.
Our artists, children of the modern, realist and positivist era, had to come to terms with the principles of these new, disruptive sciences.
Two sciences enrich artistic documentation.
The new physiognomy, which determines the character to be painted or sculpted based on the measurement of a skull or facial angle; and evolutionism, which states that man is a cousin of the ape and that his species is in constant mutation. This gives rise to the risk of regressing to this primitive state, a concept that both artists and the public find compelling.
Chapter 1 - Physionomy and Evolutionary Theory
An atavistic monster in a tutu.
Presented under a glass globe by Edgar Degas at the fifth Impressionist exhibition, The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, was considered repulsive, with a face bearing clinical signs of regression.