{"id":67085,"date":"2014-02-21T16:15:47","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T21:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=67085"},"modified":"2014-03-07T13:57:15","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T18:57:15","slug":"postcard-from-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Instant Happy Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_67090\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67090\" class=\" wp-image-67090\" alt=\"tea and morphine\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg 599w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine-300x178.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-67090\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Albert Besnard, <i>Morphinomanes ou le plumet<\/i>, 1887. Image via the Hammer Museum.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Hammer Museum, in LA, is currently showing an exhibition titled \u201cTea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914.\u201d The juxtaposition of the two substances is deliberate; the show aims to present what the curators call \u201ca multidimensional portrait of the Parisian woman at the turn of the century, spanning from the frilly collars of the upper class to the dirty syringes of the desperately poor.\u201d All of this is represented by some of the great artists of the day in a series of arresting engravings, paintings, and lithographs. (Occasional bits of ephemera\u2014and books like <em>Les morphin\u00e9es<\/em>\u2014round out the show.)<\/p>\n<p>By definition, the portrayals run the gamut from civilized\u2014George Bottini\u2019s graceful fin de si\u00e8cle women shopping or walking down Parisian boulevards\u2014to depraved. But even the most abject addict is glossed with romance. The renderings, whether they be stylized art nouveau commercial work or a Bonnard etching, are so achingly beautiful as to provide a sense of continuity. All these women, whatever they were drinking, were muses.<\/p>\n<p>And the show is at pains, via notes and curation, to make it clear that one substance was not synonymous with only one group of subjects; monied women frequently resorted to morphine in the nineteenth century, to the point where their widespread drug use became a problem. Meanwhile,\u00a0even when yielding acid, or injecting morphine, the demimondaine is rendered with the same beauty and care, avenging goddesses and righteous furies. (Which is all very well, if you were a Parisian prostitute.) As Proust\u2014no stranger to morphine himself\u2014would have it, \u201cThe paradoxes of today are the prejudices of tomorrow, since the most benighted and the most deplorable prejudices have had their moment of novelty when fashion lent them its fragile grace.\u201d That women numbing themselves was so pervasive a theme is both scary and illuminating.<\/p>\n<p>But here is the thing. Shortly after studying the images in this exhibition, I took a walk and saw this: <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/photo-55600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"photo-55600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/photo-55600.jpg\" width=\"386\" height=\"386\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Too easy, I think, to say plus\u00a0\u00e7a change. But barely.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hammer Museum, in LA, is currently showing an exhibition titled \u201cTea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914.\u201d The juxtaposition of the two substances is deliberate; the show aims to present what the curators call \u201ca multidimensional portrait of the Parisian woman at the turn of the century, spanning from the frilly collars [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419,13115],"tags":[575,12949,12948],"class_list":["post-67085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-marcel-proust","tag-morphine","tag-the-hammer-museum"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Instant Happy Woman by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"February 21, 2014 \u2013 The Hammer Museum, in LA, is currently showing an exhibition titled \u201cTea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914.\u201d The juxtaposition of the two\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Instant Happy Woman by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"February 21, 2014 \u2013 The Hammer Museum, in LA, is currently showing an exhibition titled \u201cTea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914.\u201d The juxtaposition of the two\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-21T21:15:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-03-07T18:57:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"599\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"356\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Instant Happy Woman\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-21T21:15:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-03-07T18:57:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/\"},\"wordCount\":362,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Marcel Proust\",\"morphine\",\"The Hammer Museum\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts &amp; Culture\",\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/\",\"name\":\"Instant Happy Woman by Sadie Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-21T21:15:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-03-07T18:57:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"February 21, 2014 \u2013 The Hammer Museum, in LA, is currently showing an exhibition titled \u201cTea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914.\u201d The juxtaposition of the two\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Instant Happy Woman\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Instant Happy Woman by Sadie Stein","description":"February 21, 2014 \u2013 The Hammer Museum, in LA, is currently showing an exhibition titled \u201cTea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914.\u201d The juxtaposition of the two","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Instant Happy Woman by Sadie Stein","og_description":"February 21, 2014 \u2013 The Hammer Museum, in LA, is currently showing an exhibition titled \u201cTea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914.\u201d The juxtaposition of the two","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2014-02-21T21:15:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-03-07T18:57:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":599,"height":356,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"Instant Happy Woman","datePublished":"2014-02-21T21:15:47+00:00","dateModified":"2014-03-07T18:57:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/"},"wordCount":362,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg","keywords":["Marcel Proust","morphine","The Hammer Museum"],"articleSection":["Arts &amp; Culture","Our Daily Correspondent"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/","name":"Instant Happy Woman by Sadie Stein","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg","datePublished":"2014-02-21T21:15:47+00:00","dateModified":"2014-03-07T18:57:15+00:00","description":"February 21, 2014 \u2013 The Hammer Museum, in LA, is currently showing an exhibition titled \u201cTea and Morphine: Women in Paris, 1880 to 1914.\u201d The juxtaposition of the two","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tea-and-morphine.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/postcard-from-california\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Instant Happy Woman"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67085"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67118,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67085\/revisions\/67118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}