Opium images : the painter’s smokescreen
The depiction of opium in Western visual art seems as ephemeral as Plato’s positions in his Pharmacy, in that it can be considered either a beneficial remedy or an evil poison. A universal remedy along with theriaca, the opium-based poly-pharmacy, including cough syrups for children, functioned until the XVIIIth century. The medicinal value of opium was first represented visually, falling into an onieric universe where opium became medication for the spleen. From exoticism to eroticism, the opiate dreams of these smokers took them to fantastic Oriental settings in which the artists took great pleasure. From the concept of an exquisite poisoning to that of a pernicious remedy, the motif of opium in painting marks a fascination for this drug and provides pretexts for artists to draw up formal scholarly arrangements, drawing the spectator into the smoker’s sensorial experiences. Our contribution focuses on the figurative images and motifs chosen by artists to represent opium, the smokers and the opium dens. We examine the themes used, including settings in the world of opium as well as the dreamlike, languorous atmosphere illustrated by the smoker, armed with his pipe travelling through an illicit paradise. Through various graphic and pictorial mediums, from the history of medicine to popular illustrations and oriental works from the XIXth century, our analysis seeks to understand the figurative strategies used by artists with a view to improving our understanding of the socio-cultural issues attached to opium.