Édouard Manet's Tabes Dorsalis: From Painful Ataxia to Phantom Limb.

Abstract

Édouard Manet (1832-1883) is considered the "father" of impressionism and even of twentieth century modern art. Manet's genius involved getting away from the classical narrative or historical topics and replacing them by the banality of daily life. Technically, he erased volumes into flat two-dimensional coloured planes, and distorted conventional perspective with often gross brushstrokes intentionally giving an "unfinished" aspect to the work. It is little known that Manet had a very painful second part of his life, due to excruciating limb and chest pains, which developed in parallel with proprioceptive ataxia and gait imbalance. Manet always remained discreet about his private life, and we mainly know that his future wife was his family piano teacher, with whom he had a liaison at the age of 17 years. Later, the great but platonic passion of his life was the painter Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), who married Manet's brother Eugène. In fact, we do not know whether he had a mistress at all, although he had several elegant "flirts" in the mundane and artistic milieu. Thus, while Manet's progressive painful ataxia from the age 40 years yields little doubt on its tabetic origin, how he contracted syphilis at least 15-20 years before will probably remain a mystery. It is fascinating that Manet's daily struggle against pain and poor coordination may have led his art to become one of the most significant of modern times, opening the way to twentieth century avant-gardes, along with another victim of syphilis, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). Manet never showed any sign of general paresis, and like his contemporary, the writer Alphonse Daudet, his clinical picture remained dominated by paroxysmal pain and walking impairment. Difficult hand co-ordination made him quit watercolour painting, and during the last 2 years of his life he had to focus on small format oil works, the subject of which was nearly limited to modest bunches of fresh flowers, now often considered to be his maturity masterpieces. Having become bedridden, he had to be amputated of one leg, which was developing gangrene, probably associated with ergot overuse. While he died shortly thereafter, we have some witness anecdotes suggesting that he experienced a phantom limb: when Claude Monet (1840-1926) visited him and sat down on his bed, Manet violently shouted that he was sitting on his (absent) leg, which provoked terrible pains. With its facts and mysteries, the subtle interaction between Manet's illness and his work output remains one of the most intriguing stories in the neurology of art.