Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), 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.

Born into the aristocracy, Toulouse-Lautrec broke both his legs during adolescence, leaving him with a stunted appearance. In later life, he developed an affinity for brothels and prostitutes that directed the subject matter for many of his works, which record details of the late-19th-century bohemian lifestyle in Paris. He is among the painters described as Post-Impressionists, with Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Georges Seurat also commonly considered as belonging in this loose group.

In a 2005 auction at Christie's auction house, La Blanchisseuse, Toulouse-Lautrec's early painting of a young laundress, sold for US$22.4 million, setting a new record for the artist for a price at auction.

Early life

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa was born at Demoiselles d'Imbert du Bosc (his great-aunts) home at rue de l'École Mage (presently 14, rue Henri de Toulouse Lautrec), Albi, in the south of France, the firstborn child of Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Montfa (1838–1913) and Adèle Zoë Tapié de Celeyran (1841–1930). He was a member of an aristocratic family (descended from both the Counts of Toulouse and Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, as well as the Viscounts of Montfa). His younger brother was born in 1867 but died the following year. Both sons enjoyed the titres de courtoisie of Comte. If Toulouse-Lautrec had outlived his father, he would have inherited the family title of Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec.

After the death of his brother, Toulouse-Lautrec's parents separated, and a nanny cared for him. At the age of eight, Toulouse-Lautrec lived with his mother in Paris, where he drew sketches and caricatures in his exercise workbooks. A friend of his father, René Princeteau, sometimes visited to give informal lessons. Some of Toulouse-Lautrec's early paintings are of horses, a speciality of Princeteau's and a subject Toulouse-Lautrec later revisited in his "Circus Paintings".

In 1875, Toulouse-Lautrec returned to Albi because his mother had concerns about his health. He took thermal baths at Amélie-les-Bains, and his mother consulted doctors in the hope of finding a way to improve her son's growth and development. and his congenital health conditions have often been attributed to a family history of inbreeding.

At the age of 13, Toulouse-Lautrec fractured his right femur, and at age 14, he fractured his left femur. The breaks did not heal properly. Modern physicians attribute this to an unknown genetic disorder, possibly pycnodysostosis (sometimes known as Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome), or a variant disorder along the lines of osteopetrosis, achondroplasia, or osteogenesis imperfecta. Toulouse-Lautrec's legs ceased to grow when he reached . He developed an adult torso while retaining his child-sized legs.

Paris

thumb|left|, 1882–1887, [[Princeton University Art Museum, probably painted while a student of Fernand Cormon, demonstrating his classical training]]

During a stay in Nice on the French Riviera, his progress in painting and drawing impressed Princeteau, who persuaded Toulouse-Lautrec's parents to allow him to return to Paris and study under the portrait painter Léon Bonnat. He returned to Paris in 1882. Toulouse-Lautrec's mother had high ambitions and, with the aim of her son becoming a fashionable and respected painter, used their family's influence to gain him entry to Bonnat's studio.

With his studies finished, Toulouse-Lautrec participated in an exposition in 1887 in Toulouse using the pseudonym "Tréclau", the verlan of the family name "Lautrec". He later exhibited in Paris with Van Gogh and Louis Anquetin.

Rise to recognition

In 1888, the Belgian critic Octave Maus invited Lautrec to present eleven pieces at the Vingt (the 'Twenties') exhibition in Brussels in February. Theo van Gogh, the brother of Vincent van Gogh, bought Poudre de Riz (Rice Powder) for 150 francs for the Goupil & Cie gallery. From 1889 to 1894, Toulouse-Lautrec took part in the Salon des Indépendants regularly. He made several landscapes of Montmartre.

Toulouse-Lautrec contributed several illustrations to the magazine Le Rire during the mid-1890s.

Interactions with women

In addition to his growing alcoholism, Toulouse-Lautrec also visited prostitutes. Fellow painter Édouard Vuillard later said that while Toulouse-Lautrec did engage in sex with prostitutes, "the real reasons for his behaviour were moral ones ... Lautrec was too proud to submit to his lot, as a physical freak, an aristocrat cut off from his kind by his grotesque appearance. He found an affinity between his condition and the moral penury of the prostitute."

The prostitutes inspired Toulouse-Lautrec. He would frequently visit a brothel located in Rue d'Amboise, where he had a favourite called Mireille. He created about a hundred drawings and fifty paintings inspired by the life of these women. In 1892 and 1893, he created a series of two women in bed together called Le Lit, and in 1894 he painted from memory in his studio. The cabaret reserved a seat for him and displayed his paintings. Among the works that he painted for the Moulin Rouge and other Parisian nightclubs are depictions of the singer Yvette Guilbert; the dancer Louise Weber, better known as La Goulue (The Glutton); and the much subtler dancer Jane Avril.

Other café-concerts also commissioned posters from Toulouse-Lautrec, such as the Café des Ambassadeurs, for which he made the now iconic poster of his friend Aristide Bruant, when he moved there in 1892.

London

thumb|[[Woman at the Tub from the portfolio Elles (1896)]]

Toulouse-Lautrec's family were Anglophiles, and though he was not as fluent as he pretended to be, he spoke English well enough. and the bicycle advert La Chaîne Simpson.

While in London, Toulouse-Lautrec met and befriended Oscar Wilde.

Alcoholism

thumb|[[La Promeneuse by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Oil on cardboard, dated 1892.]]

Toulouse-Lautrec was mocked for his short stature and physical appearance, which some biographers theorize may have contributed to his alcoholism.

Initially, Toulouse-Lautrec only drank beer and wine, but his tastes expanded into spirits, namely absinthe. The "Earthquake Cocktail" (Tremblement de Terre) is attributed to Toulouse-Lautrec: a potent mixture containing half absinthe and half cognac in a wine goblet. Because of his underdeveloped legs, he walked with the aid of a cane, which he hollowed out and kept filled with liquor.

Cooking skills

Like Claude Monet, Lautrec was known for his cooking. Culinary historian Alexandra Leaf highlights Monet and Lautrec as the two "most serious gourmets" among their peers. Lautrec's love for cooking stemmed from his family upbringing and early childhood, where he first learned culinary values. Before he became widely known as a painter, he was called "Henri the cook" by his cousins.

Lautrec's penchant for art and cooking eventually led him to combine the visual and culinary arts, usually as a formal celebration of the release of new artworks, resulting in noteworthy parties for which he designed the menu (which were often artworks in themselves), bought and prepared the food, and created new cocktails. Lautrec's most famous party, held at the Natansons' Paris house in February 1895, is often regarded as one of the most notorious parties in art history. Three hundred guests were invited, with a claimed 2,000 cocktails served, all accompanied by side dishes of gourmet food, with Lautrec working diligently as the sole chef and bartender, dressed in a white linen jacket, complete with a freshly shaved bald head and no beard. Ironically, by the end of the night, Lautrec appeared to be the only one still awake and sober. After Lautrec's death, his close friend Maurice Joyant published Lautrec's collection of recipessome original, some adaptedin the book La Cuisine de Monsieur Momo, Célibataire (1930), along with a color book frontispiece of Toulouse Lautrec Cooking by Vuillard. It was revised in 1966 as L'art de la cuisine. The cookbook features 150 recipes, many of which were Lautrec's signature dishes, such as "Catalan salad". Art historian Charles Stuckey describes it as the first cookbook ever published by an artist, albeit posthumously. An English translation, entitled The Art of Cuisine was published in 1966.

Death

thumb|right|Toulouse-Lautrec's grave in [[Verdelais]]

By February 1899, Toulouse-Lautrec's alcoholism began to take its toll, and he collapsed from exhaustion. His family had him committed to Folie Saint-James, a sanatorium in Neuilly-sur-Seine for three months. While committed, he drew 39 circus portraits. After his release, he returned to the Paris studio and travelled throughout France. Both his physical and mental health began to decline due to alcoholism and syphilis.

In March 1901, a stroke left Lautrec paralyzed from the legs down and confined him to a wheelchair. On August 15, 1901, while in Taussat, he suffered a stroke which left him hemiplegic. On 9 September 1901, at the age of 36, Toulouse-Lautrec died from complications due to alcoholism and syphilis at his mother's estate, Château Malromé, in Saint-André-du-Bois. He is buried in Cimetière de Verdelais, Gironde, a few kilometres from the estate. Toulouse-Lautrec's last words reportedly were "Le vieux con!" ("The old fool!"), his goodbye to his father, who was killing a fly over his son's deathbed. number of lost works

Toulouse-Lautrec excelled at depicting people in their working environments, with the colour and movement of the gaudy nightlife present but the glamour stripped away. He was a master at painting crowd scenes where each figure was highly individualised. At the time they were painted, the individual figures in his larger paintings could be identified by silhouette alone, and the names of many of these characters have been recorded. His treatment of his subject matter, whether as portraits, in scenes of Parisian nightlife, or as intimate studies, has been described as alternately "sympathetic" and "dispassionate".

Toulouse-Lautrec's skilled depiction of people relied on his highly linear approach emphasising contours. He often applied paint in long, thin brushstrokes leaving much of the board visible. Many of his works may be best described as "drawings in coloured paint."

On 20 August 2018, Toulouse-Lautrec was the featured artist on the BBC television programme Fake or Fortune?. Researchers attempted to discover whether he had created two newly discovered sketchbooks.

Media

Films

  • Moulin Rouge (1952): A film about the artist, portrayed by José Ferrer
  • Moulin Rouge! (2001): A jukebox musical about artists who haunt the famous cabaret, portrayed by John Leguizamo
  • Midnight in Paris (2011): A Woody Allen time travel film about Paris in the 20th century, portrayed by Vincent Menjou Cortes
  • Lautrec (1998): A French biographical film directed by Roger Planchon

Literature

  • Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art, by Christopher Moore, in which the bon vivant artist plays the role of co-detective with the fictional lead, Lucien Lessard, in trying to unravel the death of mutual friend Vincent van Gogh.
  • , by Pierre La Mure (1950), historical novel based on the life of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
  • The historical fiction novel, The Dream Collector, "Sabrine & Vincent van Gogh" (Historium Press 2024) by R.w. Meek explores Toulouse Lautrec's relationship with Vincent van Gogh and their mutual problems with alcohol.
  • Jonathan Trigell's novel Genus transposes Toulouse Lautrec and his Montmartre world into a dystopian near-future London.

Selected works

:See also :Category:Paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Paintings

<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" class="center">

File:14 oct 14 violets vase toulouse.jpg|Bouquet of violets in a vase, 1882, oil on panel, Dallas Museum of Art

File:Portrait de Suzanne Valadon (Madame Suzanne Valadon, artiste peintre) - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg|Portrait de Suzanne Valadon, 1885, oil on canvas, MNBA, Buenos Aires

File:Toulouse-Lautrec - La Blanchisseuse.jpg|The Laundress, 1884–1888, oil on canvas, private collection

File:Toulouse-Lautrec de Henri Vincent van Gogh Sun.jpg|Portrait of Vincent van Gogh, 1887, pastel on cardboard, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

File:Lautrec equestrienne (at the cirque fernando) 1887-8.jpg|Équestrienne (At the Circus Fernando), 1888, oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago

File:La Rousse in a White Blouse (1889).jpg|La Rousse in a White Blouse, 1889, oil on canvas, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French - At the Moulin Rouge- The Dance - Google Art Project.jpg|At the Moulin Rouge 1890, oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art

File:Lautrec gabrielle 1891.jpg|Portrait of Gabrielle, 1891, oil on cardboard, Museum Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1891 (51530935907).jpg|Portrait of Gaston Bonnefoy, 1891, oil on cardboard, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

File:Toulouse-Lautrec - La Goulue arrivant au Moulin Rouge.jpg|La Goulue arriving at the Moulin Rouge, 1892, oil on cardboard, Museum of Modern Art, New York

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892, Deux femmes dansant au Moulin-Rouge, oil on cardboard, 93 x 80 cm, National Gallery in Prague.jpg|At the Moulin Rouge (Two Women Waltzing), 1892, oil on cardboard, National Gallery in Prague

File:Lautrec a corner in a dance hall 1892.jpg|Un coin du Moulin de la Galette, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge, 1892.jpg|The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge, 1892, oil on cardboard, Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:Toulouse-Lautrec - Quadrille NGA.jpg|Quadrille at the Moulin Rouge, 1892, oil and gouache on cardboard, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892, Wadsworth Atheneum.jpg|Jane Avril leaving the Moulin Rouge, , oil and gouache on cardboard, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

File:Lautrec in bed 1893.jpg|In Bed, 1893, oil on cardboard, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

File:Rue des Moulins, 1894 sc001208.jpg|The Medical Inspection at the Rue des Moulins Brothel, 1894, oil on cardboard on wood, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

File:Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in Chilpéric A24275.jpg|Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric", 1895–96, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

(Albi) Un examen à la faculté de Médecine de Paris - Toulouse-Lautrec 1901 MTL.216.jpg|Examination at faculty of medicine, May–July 1901, oil on canvas – his last painting, Museum Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi

</gallery>

Posters

<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" class="center">

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 003.jpg|Aristide Bruant in his cabaret, 1892, lithograph

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 002.jpg|Ambassadeurs – Aristide Bruant, 1892, lithograph

File:Lautrec reine de joie (poster) 1892.jpg|Reine de Joie, 1892, chromolithograph

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Divan Japonais - Google Art Project.jpg|Divan Japonais, 1892–93, crayon, brush, spatter and transferred screen lithograph, printed in 4 color-layers

File:Jane Avril by Toulouse-Lautrec.jpeg|Avril (Jane Avril), 1893, lithograph printed in five colours

File:Lautrec babylone d'allemagne (poster for 'the german babylon') 1894.jpg|The German Babylon, 1894, lithograph published by Victor Joze

</gallery>

Other

<gallery widths="170" heights="170" class="center">

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Au Nouveau Cirque, Papa Chrysanthème, c.1894, stained glass, 120 x 85 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.jpg|With Louis Comfort Tiffany, Au Nouveau Cirque, Papa Chrysanthème, , stained glass, 120 × 85&nbsp;cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

File:HTLMissIdaHeath.JPG|Miss Ida Heath, 1894, crayon and brush lithograph with scraper

File:HTLBoxWithGildedMask.png|The Box with the Gilded Mask, 1894, colour crayon, brush and spatter lithograph with scraper

File:(Albi) Le Jockey - 1899 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Musée Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg|The Jockey, 1899, colour lithograph, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec

File:Paula Brébion (from Le Café Concert) MET DP835460.jpg|Paula Brébion (from Le Café Concert series) Brush lithograph printed in light olive-green on wove paper, 1893, Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:Buste de Lender-Mlle Marcelle Lender by Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - ABDAG007134.jpg|Buste de Lender-Mlle Marcelle Lender (1895), Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums Collection

File:May Belfort - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - ABDAG007136.jpg|May Belfort (1895), Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums

</gallery>

Photos of Toulouse-Lautrec

<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" class="center">

File:Guibert 5.jpg|Photo by Maurice Guibert

File:Guibert 3.jpg|Photo by Maurice Guibert, 1892

File:Guibert 4.jpg|Photo by Maurice Guibert

File:Toulouse-Lautrec in his workshop with a nude model (photo by Maurice Guibert).jpg|With a nude model in his studio, by Maurice Guibert

</gallery>

See also

  • Art Nouveau posters and graphic arts
  • Salon des Cent
  • Les Maîtres de l'Affiche

References

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  • Sawyer, Kenneth B. "Art Notes: Lautrec Works Shown at Gutman Memorial", The Sun, 15 April 1956, 100.
  • "Rites for Nelson Gutman to be at 11 A.M. Tomorrow", The Sun, 17 August 1955, 13.
  • Henry, Helen. "Juanita Greif Gutman Art Treasures: Works form the Collection She Left the Baltimore Museum of Art Go on Exhibit Next Sunday", The Sun, 16 February 1964, SM9.
  • "Gutman Show-Savor it Slow", The Sun, 8 March 1964 D4.
  • "Mrs. Gutman Funeral Set: Noted Collector of Art, Rare Books Traveled Widely", The Sun, 7 September 1963, 1.

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Further reading

  • Frey, Julia (1994). Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life. Viking.
  • Murray, Gale B. (1991). Toulouse-Lautrec: The Formative Years 1878-1891. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
  • Perruchot, Henri (1960). Toulouse-Lautrec. Perpetua Press.
  • Sweetman, David (1999). Explosive Acts: Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde, Félix Fénéon, and the Art & Anarchy of the Fin de Siecle. Simon & Schuster.
  • Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre at the National Gallery of Art

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  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – Artcyclopedia
  • Young woman at a table, 'Poudre de riz', 1887 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Collection Van Gogh Museum
  • Toulouse Lautrec Museum
  • Bibliothèque numérique de l'INHA - Estampes de Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French National Institute of Art – Prints of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec)
  • Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril beyond the Moulin Rouge - Courtauld Gallery, London
  • Toulouse-Lautrec. From Albi and other Collections 1996-97 exhibition at the Fundación Juan March Madrid
  • Toulouse-Lautrec Illustrates the Belle Époque a 2016-2017 exhibit co-organized and exhibited by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (exhibited 18 June–30 October 2016) and The Phillips Collection (exhibited 4 February–30 April 2017)

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