W.A. Goodwin’s Paint Box and Artist’s Palette

Goodwin suffered from painter’s colic

As a condition, painter’s colic was first described as such in the 1820s; within a decade, it was being described in medical journals, and by the 1860s, its threat to human health was well-known.

“This disease, the most common and the most dangerous to which painters are liable, arises with them from breathing in the fumes and handling the different preparations of white lead.  It is a violent species of colic, and may be produced by other causes; but when it proceeds from lead, it is always the most obstinate, and the most tedious and difficult of cure.”

 – The Painter, Gilder, And Varnisher’s Companion, Tenth Ed., 1867 (Pgs. 177-178)