Abstract:
An old woman is visited by tiny messengers of God and tiny devils. The prints from the series L’Imagination are very impressive. They have been drawn by Daumier while he was serving a prison sentence (first in the prison St. Pélagie) at the hospital for the mentally ill of Dr. J.P. Casimir Pinel (1800-1856?). Pinel owned a private hospital at 67, rue de Chaillot in Paris. His rather unconventional attitude and political standing made it possible to have political detainees declared “mentally unstable”, like Daumier. Instead spending their time in prison, these unfortunate prisoners were able to serve their sentence in the relaxed surrounding of a private clinic. The hospital was run in such a laid back way that some political “prisoners” continued their subversive activity from within the clinic. Daumier continued drawing this series while being at Pinel’s, but the transfer to the lithographic stone was done by Ramelet.
