The Madwoman of Étretat in Merle and Margaret Lanterman in Lynch, two women with a log

"The Madwoman of Étretat" by the French painter Hugues Merle, 1871, and the Log Lady from Twin Peaks by David Lynch, 1990.

The two women are united by a tragic fate: both lost someone they loved. The madwoman of Étretat was a real woman whom Merle met in the street; he later learned that she had borne a child out of wedlock, been cast out by society and, with no means of earning a living or feeding herself, had lost the child, after which she lost her reason and went about carrying a swaddled log in her arms. Lynch's mad Margaret Lanterman lost her husband on their wedding night; he died in a fire, and from a tree that fell during that fire she carved a log, with which she walked and talked for many years