Valentin dancing at the Moulin Rouge: a very good depiction of joint hypermobility by Toulouse-Lautrec
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Valentin dancing at the Moulin Rouge: a very good depiction of joint hypermobility by Toulouse-Lautrec Angel Checa
Received: 31 January 2012 / Accepted: 7 July 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag 2012
Keywords Hypermobility Joint hypermobility Ehlers–Danlos syndrome Paleopatology Art
Joint hypermobility, a paramount hallmark of Ehlers– Danlos syndrome (EDS), has been a common finding in the artwork of ancient cultures. Very exquisite representations of ‘‘loosed’’ joints can be noted in ceramics and sculptures from Mesoamerica, Centro, and South America [1, 2]. Aronson and Ramachandran [3], have related the flexion deformity of Valentin finger’s at ‘‘The Moulin Rouge,’’ a lithographic poster performed by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec in 1891, with a Dupuytren’s contracture or rheumatoid arthritis. Jacques Renaudin, also known as Valentin or ‘‘Le De´sosse´’’ (boneless) was a famous nocturne dancer at The Moulin Rouge and respectable wine merchant in his diurnal life, which was immortalized by Toulouse-Lautrec. In ‘‘At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance’’ (1890), an oil on canvas currently at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Lautrec presented to Valentin with a bilateral hyperextension of knees (Fig. 1). This bilateral angular deformity of the knee coined as recurvatum, together the swan neck deformity aforementioned at ‘‘The Moulin Rouge’’ poster, complete the pictorial of joint hypermobility syndrome. Swan neck deformities have been reported as a part of the clinical feature of the EDS [4]. The artist’s style and imagination should be considered when any artwork is examined with paleopathological
proposal [5]. Several contemporary sculptures of the famous model Kate Moss performed by Mark Quinn, including one magnificent of gold, shows her in a contortionist pose. However, one column on the ‘‘Mail’’ online (http://www. dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-452735/Kate-oss-knotsThat-ll-1million.html#ixzz1k4bT1W00) has clarified that these sculptures are not portraits of the top model. Otherwise, the presence of hyperflexible joints represented by Lautrec in his artwork, in addition to one picture of epoch in which Valentin shown his talent with a welldone split’s posture (‘‘La Goulue’’ and Valentin ‘‘le de´sosse´’’, photo postcard by Adolphe Block. ca. 1889. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gonzalez-alba/6458437617/in/ photostream), supports the pseudonym ‘‘boneless’’ and also the diagnosis of joint hypermobility. Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disorder, which leads to important limitation of range of motion and disability. Its disastrous effects on the joint were very common in the nineteenth century due to a poor therapeutic armamentarium. Dupuytren’s morbus is a localized thickness that involves the palmar aponeurosis, with consequent flexor tendon and the skin contracture of the hand. Considering the picture of the ‘‘boneless’’ aforementioned, and the deformities portrayed by Lautrec in the two artwork discussed here, seem more appropriate attribute it deformities to a variant of EDS instead due to rheumatoid a
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