If you know anyone who has ever made the same facial expression as The Woman with Gambling Mania here, then they are definitely addicted to gambling and you should plan an intervention immediately.

This painting was made during a low point in Gericault’s career. He had just made the Raft of the Medusa, which had been awarded a gold medal by the judgment panel of the 1819 Paris Salon, but had not been purchased by the Louvre… yet. For Gericault’s first big piece on his own dime, this seems like it would still be a success but Gericault took it as a hard loss. With no money to fund his painting, he soon fell into a depression that was only worsened by the tumor in his lower back – a result of not one, but three horseback riding accidents in the spring of 1822.

Whilst down in the dumps, Gericault decided to paint portraits of the insane. His good friend, Étienne-Jean Georget, the man who introduced the defense of insanity to lawsuits, allowed him to paint his patients. This probably goes against the doctor-patient confidentiality thing, but it was in the name of art! This break in patient trust resulted in ten artworks, five of which are still missing. The ones that made it are A Child Snatcher, A Woman Suffering from Obsessive Envy, A Kleptomaniac, A Man Suffering from Delusions of Military Command, and obviously this Woman with Gambling Mania.

These portraits are highly realistic and were a subject no one dared or wanted to paint at the time. It was of particular interest to Gericault though because his grandfather and uncle both died insane, and after his own bout with depression from painting The Raft of the Medusa (not the cheeriest topic out there), it was likely that Gericault used his own mental instability as a creative resource. Unfortunately, Gericault died from a slew of illnesses before he could see that mental instability was a hit. Two years after his death, the Louvre bought Raft of the Medusa – something they could have done a few years earlier and perhaps saved the life of the best Romantic painter of all time. Hindsight's 20/20, am I right?