Portrait of an insane woman...or just woman

Gericault, a wealthy man in his own right, is known for presenting people, whether they are black, white, poor, rich, crazy, or sane… as people. Compared with other artists of the time, Gericault presents the human aspects of the people who are looked down upon, the people that are deemed by society as “less than human”. In the “Portrait of an Insane Woman” the woman seen does not seem insane, but she looks like a human…she looks like someone who is loved. This attention to the way things truly look, despite how society sees them, reminds me of the photographer Diane Arbus who took pictures of people who seemed abnormal to society, some of her most famous subjects include transvestites, dwarfs, prostitutes, giants and twins, these people who were never given a chance because of the way they looked. Like Gericault, Arbus portrayed these people who were considered abnormal just like normal people, telling the world that these people are humans too, and in that sense should be treated like humans.