Toulouse-Lautrec and medicine: A triumph over infirmity

Abstract

Renowned 19th century French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's most obvious association with medicine is through his bone disease. The condition from which he probably suffered was first described in 1954 by the French physician Robert Weissman-Netter. It was named pycnodysostosis in 1962 by Marateaux and Lamy and was soon attributed to this artist as the 'Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome.' The retrospective diagnosis of his skeletal condition is highly probable but cannot be definitive, as no autopsy was done when he died, no x-rays were taken of his bones during life, and there has been no subsequent exhumation of his remains to allow post-mortem studies to be carried out.