Women On The Verge: The Culture of Neurasthenia In Nineteenth-century American Art

The exhibition catalogued here explores the pictorial and cultural manifestations of the 19th century female affliction known as "neurasthenia." Along with reproductions of paintings of upper-class women in apparent nervous or melancholy states, the exhibit contains contemporaneous prints and advertising images of women at work and play. The essays address such topics as neurasthenia then and now, the aesthetics of repose, and the emergence of the Gibson Girl. The publisher is the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for the Visual Arts at Stanford University. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)