Morfineverslaafde vrouw 1897

Eugène Grasset’s ‘Morphine Addict’ is rendered with watercolor, ink, and graphite. It depicts a woman injecting morphine, a potent symbol of the era's anxieties about modernity and decay. The act of self-injection, rendered with stark realism, echoes the visual language of religious ecstasy—a perverted transfiguration. One is reminded of Saint Teresa pierced by the angel's arrow, here replaced by the cold, metallic syringe. The woman's face, contorted in a grimace, invites comparison to depictions of martyrdom. The dark circles under her eyes, the pallid complexion, all speak to a deeper malaise. This motif of self-destruction appears throughout art history, a constant reminder of humanity's capacity for self-inflicted suffering. Grasset taps into a primal fear, presenting addiction as a secular stigmata, an emblem of modern alienation. This image persists in our collective psyche, resurfacing as a cautionary tale, a mirror reflecting the dark underbelly of progress and the cyclical nature of human suffering.