Esoteric Interests
In 1789 Loutherbourg temporarily gave up painting, in order to pusue an interest in alchemy and the supernatural. He met Alessandro di Cagliostro, who instructed him in the occult,. He travelled about with Cagliostro, leaving him, however, before his condemnation to death. He and his wife also took up faith-healing . A pamphlet called A List of a Few Cures performed by Mr and Mrs De Loutherbourg, of Hammersmith Terrace, without Medicine was published in 1789. Written by a follower named Mary Pratt, it claimed that the Loutherbourgs had cured two thousand people between Christmas 1788 and the following July, "having been made proper recipients to receive divine manuductions".
Read more about this topic: Philip James De Loutherbourg
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