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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
The classic
tortured artist; Toulouse-Lautrec lived and worked in the Montmartre
section of “Belle Epoque” Paris effectively submerging himself
in the center of the cabaret entertainment and bohemian life
that he loved to participate in and document in his paintings.
Circuses, dance halls and nightclubs, racetracks--all these spectacles
were either recorded by Lautrec on canvas or more famously reproduced
as lithoghraphic posters and prints.
Lautrec's poster “masterpieces
define the limits of poster style: where previous artists like
Cheret epitomize a completely external, impersonal viewpoint,
Lautrec is the embodiment of internal, personal vision with a
point to make, not, to be sure, a moral judgment, but rather
an amused, wry observation on the passing scene. Lautrecs legacy
in poster art continues to astound us. Despite the smallness
of his output as compared to the rest of his artistic oeuvre,
Toulouse-Lautrec proved himself a true genius of the poster,
and his position in the poster pantheon has never been seriously
challenged".
Born the son of a wealthy nobleman, Lautrec fell and broke both legs when he was a child. His permanently stunted growth has traditionally been seen as the result of this accident, but more recently doctors have theorized that it may have been the result of a rare genetic abnormality. Showing an early gift for drawing, he studied with Bonnat and Cormon and set up a studio of his own when he was 21. As a youth he was attracted by sporting subjects and admired and was influenced by the work of Degas.
His own work
is, above all, graphic in nature, the paint never obscuring the
strong, original draftsmanship. He detailed the music halls,
circuses, brothels, and cabaret life of Paris with a remarkable
objectivity; born perhaps of his own isolation, Lautrec would
sit at a crowded nightclub table, laughing and drinking, and
simultaneoulsy recording moments of revelry in swift sketches.
The next morning in his studio he would expand the sketches into
bright-colored paintings. His garish and artificial colors, the
orange hair and electric green light of his striking posters,
caught the atmosphere of the life they advertised. Lautrec's
technical innovations in color lithography created a greater
freedom and a new immediacy in poster design. His posters of
the dancers and personalities at the Moulin Rouge cabaret are
world renowned and have inspired countless imitations.
After a life of enormous productivity (more than 1,000 paintings, 5,000 drawings, and 350 prints and posters), debauchery, and alcoholism, Lautrec suffered a mental and physical collapse and died at the age of 37. His life has inspired numerous biographies, of varying accuracy. Although exhibitions of his work were not well received in his lifetime, he is now one of the world's most popular artists and is represented in most of the major museums of France and the United States. Many of his sketches and some paintings are in the Musée Lautrec of his native Albi. His painting At the Moulin de la Galette (1892) is in the Art Institute, Chicago; the lithograph Seated Female Clown (1896) is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Lautrecs posters--particularly the Moulin Rouge group—are in great demand and bring high prices at auctions and art sales.
Text taken from: Lautrec by Lautrec,
by P. Huisman and M. G. Dortu. Viking Press. New York, 1964
Posters of the
Belle Epoque: The Wine Spectator Collection, by Jack Rennert.
The Wine Spectator Press, New York, 1990
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