Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa, known as Toulouse-Lautrec, was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator. His immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century allowed him to produce popular works of art from decadent affairs.
Paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
At the Moulin Rouge (1892)
At the Moulin Rouge (French: Au Moulin Rouge) is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It was painted between 1892 and 1895. Included in the background is a self-portrait of the artist in profile. It is one of a number of works by Toulouse-Lautrec depicting the Moulin Rouge cabaret built in Paris in 1889.
The painting portrays near its center a group of three men and two women sitting around a table situated on the floor of the cabaret. From left to right, the people at the table include: writer Édouard Dujardin, dancer La Macarona, photographer Paul Secau, photographer Maurice Guibert, and, facing away, Jane Avril, being the focal point of the group - recognizable by her flaming red-orange hair. In the right foreground, apparently sitting at a different table, is a partial facial view of English dancer May Milton, with painted red lips, her face aglow in a distinctive greenish light and shadow. In the background standing on the right fixing her hair is Moulin Rouge dancer La Goulue and another woman. The center-left background shows Toulouse-Lautrec himself standing in front of Dr. Gabriel Tapié de Céleyran.
La Blanchisseuse (Toulouse-Lautrec) (1889)
La Blanchisseuse (French: [la blɑ̃ʃisøz], The Laundress) is an 1886 oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. In November 2005, it was sold for US$22.4 million at auction by Christie's.
La Blanchisseuse was painted by Toulouse-Lautrec and posed for by Carmen Gaudin in 1886. This painting showcases the gritty life and working conditions endured by the working classes throughout the 19th century. The subject of laundresses, also known as washerwomen, was a popular one in art, especially in France. The subject is also consistent with Toulouse-Lautrec's interest in depicting marginalized groups such as dancers, prostitutes, and circus performers.
At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance (1890)
At the Moulin Rouge, the Dance is an oil-on-canvas painted by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It was painted in 1890, and is the second of a number of graphic paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec depicting the Moulin Rouge cabaret built in Paris in 1889. It portrays two dancers dancing the can-can in the middle of the crowded dance hall. A recently discovered inscription by Toulouse-Lautrec on the back of the painting reads: "The instruction of the new ones by Valentine the Boneless." This means that the man to the left of the woman dancing is Valentin le désossé, a well-known dancer at the Moulin Rouge, and he is teaching the newest addition to the cabaret. To the right is a mysterious aristocratic woman in pink. The background also features many aristocratic people such as poet Edward Yeats, the club owner and even Toulouse-Lautrec's father. The work is currently displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
La Toilette (Toulouse-Lautrec) (1896)
La Toilette, also known as Rousse, is a painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, from 1889. The painting depicts a red-headed woman, stripped to the waist, seated on the floor, facing away from the viewer, just before or just after bathing. Held by public collections in France since 1914, it has been at the Musée d'Orsay, in Paris, since 1983.
The painting depicts a domestic scene of a woman, sitting on a plain towel or sheet over a dark rug on the bare floorboards. She is largely undressed, with bare back, arms and head, hair tied back, and bare right thigh visible. A swathe of plain fabric is wrapped around her waist, with a black boot or stocking on her right lower leg. Other clothing is draped over a chair to the left.
The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon) (1889)
The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon) (French: Gueule de Bois), also known as The Drinker (French: La Buveuse), is a late 1880s, oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The painting was created just before he became successful as an artist. It depicts a drunken woman drinking alone in a club, reflecting the counterculture of Montmartre and the spectre of alcoholism among French women during the Belle Époque. The model in The Hangover is artist Suzanne Valadon, Lautrec's lover. In the early 1880s, after falling from a circus trapeze at the age of 15 and suffering a back injury, Valadon began working as an art model in Montmartre. She had been drawing all her life, but now she pursued a career as an artist, becoming the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
French cabaret singer and nightclub owner Aristide Bruant is thought to have influenced the development of the painting and possibly even its title. Lautrec's technique is loosely reminiscent of both the color theory of Neo-Impressionism and the technique of Lautrec's art school friend Vincent van Gogh. The work was preceded by several preparatory studies followed by a drawing in ink and chalk that was later published in Le Courrier français in 1889. Lautrec drank copious amounts of alcohol to deal with pain from his assumed underlying genetic disorder which left him disabled. Alcoholism and the syphilis he later acquired due to his habit of frequenting brothels would later contribute to his death at the young age of 36.
Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Driving His Mail-Coach (1880)
Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Driving His Mail-Coach is a painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec of his father, a great lover of horses, completed in 1881 when Toulouse-Lautrec was 17 years old. It is now in the Petit Palais in Paris.
The work is highly influenced by equestrian scenes by Crafty and by British and American engravings of horse-teams. It is signed in the bottom right-hand corner "HTL, Souvenir de la Promenade des Anglais". The painter stayed on the Côte d'Azur several times due to his bad health and was inspired by Nice.
Le Lit (Toulouse-Lautrec) (1892)
Le Lit ('The Bed') (also known as Dans le lit, 'In Bed') is a painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec from around 1892 which depicts two women sharing a bed. The painting has been held by public collections in France since 1937, and by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris since 1986.
Toulouse-Lautrec became fascinated by the nightlife in Paris, particularly prostitutes. Through the 1890s, he spent more and more time painting everyday scenes of life in the official brothels, the maisons closes. In 1892, he was commissioned to produce paintings for the salon at a brothel on the rue d'Ambroise. He spent time observing the brothel, its residents and visitors, while they worked and at quieter moments, and made sixteen portraits of the prostitutes. These paintings demonstrate a close and intimate observation and compassion towards the subjects, without any sense of sensationalism or voyeurism.
The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge (1892)
The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge is a late-19th-century painting by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Done in oil on cardboard, the work depicts British artist William T. Warrener – a close friend of Lautrec – and two women at the Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris. The painting served as a preparatory study for a color lithograph of 1892, and is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which acquired it in 1967.
In the Salon at the Rue des Moulins (1894)
AU SALON DE LA RUE DES MOULINS
At Grenelle, Absinthe Drinker (1886)
At Grenelle, Absinthe Drinker or Absinthe Drinker in Grenelle (French: À Grenelle, buveuse d'absinthe) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French Post-Impressionist painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Painted in 1886, it is held in the collection of Colombia's Bank of the Republic and exhibited at the Museo Botero, in Bogotá.
The work depicts an anonymous woman drinking absinthe at Le Mirliton, a cabaret. Under low light, she is staring into the distance, most likely watching the theatrical entertainment of the venue.
Portrait of Suzanne Valadon (Toulouse-Lautrec) (1885)
Portrait of Suzanne Valadon is an 1885 painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec now held at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires. Toulouse-Lautrec and the artist and model Suzanne Valadon were friends in Montmartre in Paris. Henri de Toulouse was a highly renowned artist at the time, as was Suzanne Valadon. Lautrec made many portraits of Valadon and supported her journey through the art industry. They were seen as lovers by the town of Montmartre until their relations ended in 1888.
Toulouse-Lautrec created this portrait of Suzanne as she walked directly toward the viewer in what seems like autumn as Lautrec puts an emphasis on the color behind Valadon. He presents Suzanne as very fashionable with her purple dress and hat. The way Lautrec uses light in this piece is intriguing as Valadon stands out from her background, even with similar colors seen throughout the portrait.
Self-portrait in front of a mirror (1882)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Self-portrait (1882–1883)