Hunger edema

José Aparicio e Inglada
1770, Alicante - 1838, Madrid, Spain

Patriotic guards assist Madrid's starving citizens during the French invasion

♦ Hunger in Madrid (Hambre en Madrid), 1818 ♦

Although José Aparicio e Inglada undoubtedly had didactic and moralizing intentions with his paintings, they are actually more rhetorical, theatrical, and flattering, which explains their unwavering success in official circles.
He became very popular with patriotic and nationalistic works such as Hunger in Madrid.

♦ Diagnosis
Important symptoms: Severe edema of the lower limbs.
Side effects: Poor, hungry woman eats leftover cabbage leaves
Clinical symptoms: Hunger edema

♦ Definition: Hunger edema
Edema resulting from starvation or poor nutrition. Caused by abnormally low plasma protein concentration in the blood.

♦ Discussion
You cannot walk down the street without even the hardest heart softening at the sight and sound of people complaining that they have not even had breakfast, even though it is already six o'clock in the afternoon, or others whose faces are already marked by death. Still others faint from weakness, while others have already died. Here you see a group of children, abandoned by their parents and crying for bread. There walks a widow, completely filthy and deformed. And a little further on, a girl, whom we assume is begging so as not to compromise her chastity.
This description, published in the newspaper Diario de Madrid on August 27, 1812, is depicted in this painting, Hunger in Madrid by Inglada.

This famine killed 20,000 people between September 1811 and August 1812. It was primarily caused by guerrilla gangs who blocked the supply routes to the city, making it impossible for most city dwellers to find food. The French occupation forces failed to build up food reserves or gain control of the roads.
Even the well-funded charity association set up by the French was unable to cope with the large number of townspeople dying of starvation.

Source: Jan Dequeker

Jan Dequeker
The artist and the doctor look at paintings

Photos
commons.wikimedia.org