Nationality
French
Artist Dates
1808-1879
Title of Work
Preview
Date of Work
1867
Medium
Lithograph
Signature
Initialed in the lithographic stone.
Identification #
2016.001.0944
Collection/Provenance
University Art Collections: Lilly Jacobson Collection, Art & Design Dept.
Status
Stored: R31
Location
UND Art Collections Repository
Additional Information
Series: Actualités
Published in Le Charivari
Original text: UNE SÉANCE DE MAGNÉTISME. On dirait que ce diable de Mars ne veut dormir que d'un oeil.
Here Daumier presents an allegory about political instability among nations in Europe. Mars, the god of war, is kept asleep through “animal magnetism” (which preceded hypnotism). Should Mars wake up, war will soon erupt.
In the field of medicine, animal magnetism (or mesmerism) was generally associated more with charlatans, than with honest physicians. Yet, some doctors experimented with it as alternate medicine. As hypnotism progressed through the 19th century, it increasingly gained respectability—when understood as being about the power of suggestion, rather than uncanny magnetic energy.
Included in the Honoré Daumier III: Law, Medicine, and Social Satire exhibition, 2018.