914

J. Endocrinol. Invest. 24: 914, 2001

“The artist’s son, Paul”

Paul Cézanne Aix-en-Provence (France) 1839-1906

Paul Cézanne was one of the most famous painters of Impressionism, an important pic-torial movement that developed in the 19th century. His unsociable and ill nature ren-dered him a solitary genius of his age. As a number of contemporary artists, Cézannehad a genuine passion for portraits: he considered his models a sort of still-life, usuallytreated them badly, and expected them to always remain motionless.This picture entitled “The artist’s son, Paul” (oil on canvas 0.653x0.540; Chester DaleCollection) may be admired at the National Gallery of Washington; it represents thepainter’s son, who notoriously was neither handsome nor intelligent. It should easily benoticed that the boy has a large goiter, he lacked the lateral side of his right eyebrow, andhad an apathetic, expressionless look. These signs support the hypothesis that the artist’sson was affected by a hypofunctioning goiter. This might explain why he was able to sitmotionless for a long time without making his father angry.

Giampaolo Papi, M.D.(member of SIE)

. Dipartimento di Medicina InternaReparto di Medicina 1

Ospedale Ramazzini, Carpi (MO)Italy

Endocrinology and Art