Did Lead Paint Cause The "Masters" To Go Crazy?

[ChiMagnet]

I've read a number of art books and basically the claim a large part of the reason so many of the "great masters" of painting were crazy is because they used lead based paint. Or mixed other paints with lead. This lead them to go crazy and have symptoms of lead poisoning. For proof of this they say when the artists were in their "crazy" period they were put in assylums or such and they once again became normal once the lead wore out of their systems. Then they returned to painting and the cycle repeated itself.

Any truth to this or is it speculation?

[Sage Rat]

*knows nothing factual*

Sounds similar to "mad" hatters. Sounds plausible at least.

[Sonia Montdore]

Originally Posted by ChiMagnet

I've read a number of art books and basically the claim a large part of the reason so many of the "great masters" of painting were crazy is because they used lead based paint. Or mixed other paints with lead. This lead them to go crazy and have symptoms of lead poisoning. For proof of this they say when the artists were in their "crazy" period they were put in assylums or such and they once again became normal once the lead wore out of their systems. Then they returned to painting and the cycle repeated itself.

Any truth to this or is it speculation?

Apart from van Gogh, who was likely a schizophrenic, can you cite an example of a crazy painter?

[Alive At Both Ends]

I thought heavy metals accumulated in the body and never "wore out of the system". So I don't believe it. I suspect the truth is that the sort of mentality that leads to artistic genius is just a bit unstable.

[Alive At Both Ends]

Originally Posted by Sonia Montdore

Apart from van Gogh, who was likely a schizophrenic, can you cite an example of a crazy painter?

Salvador Dali was more than a little odd.

[capybara]

I can think of a few painters who went bonky (aside from van Gogh, Hugo van der Goes, perhaps, for example, and Goya got very depressed and there are lots of merely eccentrics but I don't know about bonky) but I really don't think this has been claimed by many serious art historians. What books have you read this in?

[Canadjun]

Originally Posted by Sage Rat

*knows nothing factual*

Sounds similar to "mad" hatters. Sounds plausible at least.

Except in the case of "mad" hatters it was chronic mercury poisoning, from the chemicals used to make the felt in hats.

[David Simmons]

Here is a site that includes historical information about artists' paints. And here, from the same site is some historical information about paint ingredients.

It appears to me that artists' paints were never, and are not now, lead based to any great extent.

[capybara]

In the early days (Medieval, Renaissance until I do not know when) much white paint was based on lead, which is why it show up so "well" in x-rays (sorry, I don't have a citation-- that book's in storage).

[David Simmons]

Originally Posted by capybara

In the early days (Medieval, Renaissance until I do not know when) much white paint was based on lead, which is why it show up so "well" in x-rays (sorry, I don't have a citation-- that book's in storage).

I didn't follow my site quite far enough into its depths. White was lead based and it seems that lots of white was used. Whether or not that resulted in a lot of lead poisoning is open to question.

[SkiDemon]

speaking of which, does anyone know what the signs of mercury posioning were?

[VernWinterbottom]

Don't you have to ingest the stuff for it to be harmful? I think the turpentine fumes would get to you a lot quicker than any lead in the paint.

Lead poisoning from paint is generally caused by children chewing on old painted woodwork or by inhaling dust from sanding the stuff. Having lead in a mixture on the end of your paintbrush isn't going to do a lot of harm.

[Sonia Montdore]

Originally Posted by SkiDemon

speaking of which, does anyone know what the signs of mercury posioning were?

IIRC, Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice discusses this in the section on the Mad Hatter. Your library probably has a copy.

[beergeek279]

Woo hoo.......finally absinthe gets off the hook!!!!

[Lissa]

Originally Posted by VernWinterbottom

I think the turpentine fumes would get to you a lot quicker than any lead in the paint.

Meh. I breathe the stuff every day and I'm still somewhat sane.

[David Simmons]

Originally Posted by VernWinterbottom

Don't you have to ingest the stuff for it to be harmful? I think the turpentine fumes would get to you a lot quicker than any lead in the paint.

Lead poisoning from paint is generally caused by children chewing on old painted woodwork or by inhaling dust from sanding the stuff. Having lead in a mixture on the end of your paintbrush isn't going to do a lot of harm.

When lead based house paints were common, painters sometimes got painter's colic which was a result of lead poisoning.

[elucidator]

Originally Posted by beergeek279

Woo hoo.......finally absinthe gets off the hook!!!!

Never was anything wrong with absinthe. In fact, makes the heart grow fonder.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

My husband's an artist. His favorite white is a lead-based paint and he's been using it for years. He doesn't eat it, nor does he inhale it or even get (much) of it on his skin--so no problem.

Although come to think of it he is a bit odd.

[Cicero]

Originally Posted by Lissa

Meh. I breathe the stuff every day and I'm still somewhat sane.

we might need a poll here

[ChiMagnet]

I've read a few books the one I got now is focusing on Francisco Goya. Though it mentions Van Gough. It tells how the old masters would mix paints of lead, cadmium and mercury and absorb them thru touching, breathing and ingesting them via the tips of their tongues.

It shows Goya had 5 years periods where his work suddently went form sweet and sentimental to weird and eerie and often grotesque. Then he'd be put away and gradually get better.

Of course all this is probably speculation in books, that's why I wanted to know if it was actual or an urban myth.

[Rigamarole]

Originally Posted by ChiMagnet

This lead them to go crazy

Sure did.

Bravo, 9 points on the Pun-o-Meter.

[capybara]

ChiMagnet-- Sounds like the kind of urban myth that gets put out in a certain type of art book; you know, Bosch was a heretical alchemist, Da Vinci was a hermaphrodite, and all that. Sells well.
Now, if that paint mixture was common practice, why only Goya, and not also Josh Reynolds and Hogarth and David Caspar Friedrich and Mengs and David and Ingres all those other majority of artists who were imminently sane in that period? A statistical sampling of one isn't a good argument for a trend.

[Colibri]

Also, lead poisoning has many other symptoms besides neurological problems. If it was widespread among painters, one would expect them to be characterized as a sickly bunch in general, not just crazy. (And like others have said, I am having trouble coming up with a list of more than a few painters that could have been charactized as having severe mental problems.)

From here

Common symptoms of lead poisoning in adults

* Fatigue
* Depression
* Heart failure
* Abdominal pain
* Gout
* Kidney failure
* High blood pressure
* Wrist or foot weakness
* Reproductive problems
* Anemia

If lead poisoning was common among painters, you would expect to hear of other neurological problems like inability to hold a brush, or to walk, at least as much as insanity.