Читать книгу Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists - Part 4 - Группа авторов - Страница 39

The amputation of a limb, especially an upper limb or a hand, is a cruel condition for an artist. This has led some artists to try to use a prothesis with a utilitarian or esthetic purpose. Nevertheless, they frequently discarded their protheses because they induced an exacerbation of stump pain. Phantom limb phenomena and stump neuromas were also obstacles to the use of a prothesis [Tatu et al., 2014]. The sculptor Maurice Prost, whose left upper limb was amputated after a war injury, is a good example of this.

At the outbreak of the war, Prost was a student in jewelry. He began the war in the 147th infantry regiment and received a bullet in the left arm in October 1914 in the Argonne offensives. His injured limb was amputated at the lower third of the arm in a military hospital. The surgeon predicted that he would never be able to practice sculpture again [Maingon, 2014]. Stump pain due to a neuroma prevented Prost from using a prothesis. He was declared an invalid with the following diagnosis: amputation of left upper limb, stump neuroma, impossibility to use a prothesis and cardiac disturbances (Carte d’invalidité de Maurice Prost; Musée Robert Dubois-Corneau, Brunoy, France).

Fig. 2. Maurice Prost and his robotic arm. From Musée Robert Dubois-Corneau, Brunoy, France, with kind permission.

Obviously, the mutilation reduced Prost’s physical capacity. He had to try new artistic methods, adapted to his handicap. He underwent rehabilitation and then became a drawing teacher. Against all odds, he eventually decided to devote himself to one of the more demanding artistic techniques: sculpture on hard stones, such as granite or onyx. As an additional challenge, Prost elected living animals as models. He would go to the zoo every day to draw sketches of animals on the spot. At first, he worked with an assistant, usually his wife. He would use his right hand to hold the chisel but was unable to use the hammer at the same time. In 1927, he ordered a tailor-made device to compensate for his handicap. With his new, almost futuristic robotic arm, Maurice Prost regained his artistic autonomy. He realized numerous animal sculptures, in particular the famous Le Gorille femelle (The Female Gorilla). In self-portraits from the 1930s, Prost appeared with his robotic arm (Fig. 2).

Thus, the mutilation led Maurice Prost to find new efficient ways to create again. Nevertheless, the war is entirely absent from his work. He focused on animal sculpture. Prost showed signs of what is today called resiliency, a concept conceived nearly a century later by the neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik [2003] to define the capacity to overcome a traumatism. Gustave Pimienta (1888–1982), a sculptor who lost several fingers during the First World War, expressed the same resiliency in the 1960s: “It is possible that my disabilities and my limited energy support my work. The pain and tiredness following each of my efforts force me to focus on one essential task. My art is undoubtedly strengthened by my mutilation” [Florisoone, 1986, p. 31].

Fig. 3. Dedication of Blaise Cendrars to Georges Braque: “To Braque my old broken face, his old mate who’s (also) survived the Dum-Dum bullets” (private collection).