ECR French Nineteenth-Century Art Network Research Forum:

Art and Text at the Fin-de-Siècle: Sensationalising Addiction to Boost Sales

At the end of the nineteenth century, French newspaper editors explored new ways of attracting readers’ attention in an increasingly saturated sector, driving profits through two interconnected methods: sensationalism and images. Artists in Paris, particularly foreign artists trying to make a name for themselves, used comparable techniques to stand out in a similarly crowded art market. This talk uses the example of the morphinomane (morphine addict) to explore how newspaper editors and artists alike used formulaic tools, such as the figure of ‘the addict’, to increase publicity at the expense of accuracy. If capitalism is the driving force behind sensationalism, the addict can be understood as a commodity. Sensationalising drug addiction in fin-de-siècle art and text fuelled a morbid desire to read and see more.

Hannah Halliwell is a Teaching Fellow in Art History at the University of Edinburgh. Her research specialisms lie in nineteenth-century French visual culture, with a particular interest in the female body, intersections between art and medicine, and visualisations of drug use(rs). Hannah obtained her PhD in Art History in 2021 from the University of Birmingham. A book based on her thesis is under advance contract with McGill-Queen’s University Press with the title ‘Art, Medicine, and Femininity in Paris: Visualising the Morphine Addict, 1884-1914’.

Hannah is currently researching images of drug paraphernalia and visualisations of opium use(rs) in France and Indochina.

This event will take place at 5pm (BST)

This is a virtual event - the Zoom link will be sent out on the day. For any issues please get in contact via email and we will try and help as best we can.

This event is open to anyone with an interest in the topic discussed and is not limited to current PhD's like our other event