Savelii Sorin, Boîte de nuit

Date: 1926

Technique: Pencil and tempera on paper, 84 x 74 cm

Source

John L. Wimbush, An Opium Den at Lime Street

Date: Unknown
Technique: Oil on canvas, 101 x 152 cm

Ferdinand Keller, Path Through a Forest

Date: 1901
Technique: Oil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 46 in.

Source

N. C. Wyeth, The Opium Eater

Brandywine River Museum of Art

Date: 1913
Technique: Oil on canvas, 81.3 x 112.1 cm

F. Monod, Absinthe is Death (L’Absinthe, c’est la mort)

Date: c. 1900
Technique:  Colour lithograph, 33 x 106,5 cm

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Brothel Laundryman

Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi

Date: c. 1894
Technique: Oil on cardboard, 57.8 x 46.2

Raphaël Kirchner, Lelie, the opium smoker (Lélie, fumeuse d'opium)

Postcard; 1915-16

Originally, front cover illustration of 'Lelie, fumeuse d'opium' by Willy (1859-1931) Paris, Albin Michel, 1911 (colour litho)

Oskar Zwintscher, Lady with Cigarette (Dame mit Zigarette)

Date: 1904
Technique: Unknown

George du Maurier, Sancta Nicotina Consolatrix. The Poor Man's Friend

Illustration from Punch magazine; January 1869.

Drawing reflects du Maurier's anxiety over his powerful addiction to cigarettes.

George du Maurier, Old Nick-Otin Stealing "Away the Brains" of His Devotees

Illustration from Punch magazine; January 1869.

Drawing depicts a darkened room in which several men are engaged in a smoking orgy. Their pipes have turned into long snakes that go from their mouths to wind about their bodies. The top of each man's head is on fire and one person's head has been completely burned out. He sits slumped in a chair, his empty, bowl-like head sending up a final plume of smoke. In the background stands a blackened figure playing a fiery violin. His bow is a thin, clay pipe. Self-indulgence leads to self-consumption in a horribly graphic manner here. Once again, the terror of the scene derives from the collapse of reason and control, as civilized behavior gives way to self-inflicted violence. Drawing reflects du Maurier's anxiety over his powerful addiction to cigarettes.

Félicien Rops, The Absinthe Drinker

Art Institute of Chicago

Date: 19th century
Technique: Heliogravure on ivory wove paper, 335 x 225 mm

Albert Besnard, Morphine Addicts

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Date: 1887
Technique: Etching, 23.7 x 37 cm

In fin-de-siècle Paris, Albert Besnard was celebrated for the decorative paintings he contributed to public buildings such as the Sorbonne and Petit Palais. At the same time, he maintained a private but prolific career as a printmaker. Besnard's etchings tended toward darker subject matter, drawing from the cultural anxieties that permeated life in the French capital during these years. This work shows two young women who are—as the title alludes—habitual morphine users. The drug was prevalent in Paris at the close of the century and was referred to frequently throughout popular culture, from artwork to cabaret songs. The pair gaze toward the viewer with vacant, drug-induced stares. The cigarette held by one indicates their subversiveness and provided an alternate title for the print, which was also called The Plume. Combined with the complex array of textures featured in the work, these wisps of smoke—probably achieved by "stopping-out" the plate, or applying a material to prevent acid from acting upon it—indicate the technical mastery that Besnard had already attained in etching early in his career.    

Eugène Grasset, La Morphiniste

Date: 1897
Technique: Unknown

Edgar Degas, In a Café or L’Absinthe

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Date: 1873
Technique: Oil on canvas, 92 x 68.5 cm

Jean-Eugène Buland, The Gambling Den (Le Tripot)

Private collection

Date: 1883
Technique: Oil on canvas, 109.22 x 63.5 cm