Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

For more information on Henri-Marie-Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, visit Britannica.com.

(b Albi, Tarn, 24 Nov 1864; d Ch?teau de Malrom?, nr Langon, Gironde, 9 Sept 1901). French painter and printmaker. He is best known for his portrayals of late 19th-century Parisian life, particularly working-class, cabaret, circus, nightclub and brothel scenes. He was admired then as he is today for his unsentimental evocations of personalities and social mores. While he belonged to no theoretical school, he is sometimes classified as Post-Impressionist. His greatest contemporary impact was his series of 30 posters (1891-1901), which transformed the aesthetics of poster art.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

The French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) depicted Montmartre's night life of cafés, bars, and brothels, the world which he inhabited at the height of his career.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a direct descendant of the counts of Toulouse, was born on Nov. 24, 1864, at Albi. His eccentric father lived in provincial luxury, hunting with falcons and collecting exotic weapons. Henri began to draw at an early age. He suffered a fall in 1878 and broke one femur; in 1879 he fell again and broke the other one. His legs did not heal properly; his torso developed normally, but his legs were permanently deformed.

Encouraged by his first teachers, the animal painters René Princeteau and John Lewis Brown, Toulouse-Lautrec decided in 1882 to devote himself to painting, and that year he left for Paris. Enrolling at the École des Beaux-Arts, he entered the studio of Fernand Cormon. In 1884 Toulouse-Lautrec settled in Montmartre, where he stayed from then on, except for short visits to Spain, where he admired the works of El Greco and Diego Velázquez; Belgium; and England, where he visited Oscar Wilde and James McNeill Whistler. At one point Toulouse-Lautrec lived near Edgar Degas, whom he valued above all other contemporary artists and by whom he was influenced. From 1887 his studio was on the Rue Caulaincourt next to the Goupil printshop, where he could see examples of the Japanese prints of which he was so fond.

Toulouse-Lautrec habitually stayed out most of the night, frequenting the many entertainment spots about Montmartre, especially the Moulin Rouge cabaret, and he drank a great deal. His loose living caught up with him: he suffered a breakdown in 1899, and his mother had him committed to an asylum at Neuilly. He recovered and set to work again. He died on Sept. 9, 1901, at the family estate at Malromé.

Parisian Demimonde

Toulouse-Lautrec moved freely among the dancers, prostitutes, artists, and intellectuals of Montmartre. From 1890 on, his tall, lean cousin, Dr. Tapié de Celeyran, accompanied him, and the two, depicted in At the Moulin Rouge (1892), made a colorful pair. Despite his deformity, Toulouse-Lautrec was an extrovert who readily made friends and inspired trust. He came to be regarded as one of the people of Montmartre, for he was an outsider like them, fiercely independent, but with great ability and intellect.

Among the painter's favorite subjects were the cabaret dancers Yvette Guilbert, Jane Avril, and La Goulue and her partner, the contortionist Valentin le Désossé. Toulouse-Lautrec depicted his subjects in a style bordering on but rising above caricature through the seriousness of his intention. He took subjects who habitually employed disguise and charade as a way of life and stripped away all that was inessential to reveal each as an individual and yet as a prisoner of his destiny.

The two most direct influences on Toulouse-Lautrec's art were the Japanese print, as seen in his oblique viewpoints and flattened forms, and Degas, from whom he derived the tilted perspective, cutting of figures, and use of a railing to separate the spectator from the painted scene, as in At the Moulin Rouge. But the authentic feel of a world of depravity and the strident, artificial colors used to create it were Toulouse-Lautrec's own.

Unusual types performing in a grand, contrived spectacle attracted Toulouse-Lautrec. In his painting In the Circus Fernando: The Ringmaster (1888) the nearly grotesque, strangely cruel figure of the ringmaster is the pivot around which the horse and bareback rider must revolve. In 1892-1894 Toulouse-Lautrec did a series of interiors of houses of prostitution, where he actually lived for a while, becoming the confidant and companion of the girls. As with his paintings of cabarets, he caught the feel of the brothels and made no attempt to glamorize them. In the Salon in the Rue des Moulins (1894) the prostitutes are shown as ugly and bored beneath their makeup; the madame sits demurely in their midst. He neither sensationalized nor drew a moral lesson but presented a certain facet of the periphery of society for what it was - no more and no less.

Color Lithography and the Poster

Toulouse-Lautrec broadened the range of lithography by treating the tone more freely. His stroke became more summary and the planes more unified. Sometimes the ink was speckled on the surface to bring about a great textural richness. In his posters he combined flat images (again the influence of the Japanese print) with type. He realized that if the posters were to be successful their message had to make an immediate and forceful impact on the passerby, and he designed them with that in mind.

Toulouse-Lautrec's posters of the 1890s establish him as the father of the modern large-scale poster. His best posters were those advertising the appearance of various performers at the Montmartre cabarets, such as the singer May Belfort, the female clown Cha-U-Kao, and Loïe Fuller of the Folies-Bergère.

In a poster of 1893 the dancer Jane Avril, colored partially in bright red and yellow, is pictured kicking her leg. Below her, in gray tones so as not to detract attention, is the diagonally placed hand of the violinist playing his instrument. There is some indication of floorboards but no furniture or other figures. The legend reads simply "Jane Avril" in white letters and "Jardin de Paris" in black letters.

Further Reading

The best books on Toulouse-Lautrec are Gerstle Mack, Toulouse-Lautrec (1938), especially rich in describing Toulouse-Lautrec's demimonde associations, and Douglas Cooper, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1956). See also Philippe Huisman and M. G. Dorty, Lautrec by Lautrec (1964). A major work on the prints is Jean Adhémar, Toulouse-Lautrec: His Complete Lithographs and Drypoints (trans. 1965).

Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de (1864-1901). French painter and graphic artist whose name is synonymous with striking poster design. He admired and was influenced by Japanese prints. Lautrec allied a remarkable command of line (economic, nervous, expressive) to an exceptionally effective mise en page. As an observer and recorder of aspects of working-class women's life and work (washerwomen, prostitutes, dancers, singers) he ranks with Daumier, Guys, Degas, and Manet, like them inventive in viewpoint and skilful in capturing movement. Despite unrestrained subject- matter—brothel scenes, lesbian couples, and erotic drawings—he was neither voyeuristic nor censorious. Recent criticism has detached his shrewd professional drive from the trappings of legend around his Parisian life.

[Helen Beale]

A French artist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, known especially for his paintings, drawings, and posters that depict the night life of Montmartre, the district in Paris where he lived.

Quotes:

"I paint things as they are. I don't comment. I record."

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Birth name	Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa
Born	24 November 1864(1864-11-24) Albi, Tarn, France
Died	9 September 1901 (aged 36) Malrome, France
Nationality	French
Field	Painter, Printmaker, draftsman, illustrator
Movement	Post-Impressionism, Art Nouveau

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁi də tuluz loˈtʁɛk]) (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draftsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern and sometimes decadent life of those times. Toulouse-Lautrec is known along with Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin as one of the greatest painters of the Post-Impressionist period. In a 2005 auction at Christie's auction house a new record was set when "La blanchisseuse", an early painting of a young laundress, sold for $22.4 million U.S.^[1]

Contents 1 Youth 1.1 Disability and health problems 2 Paris 2.1 Tremblement de Terre 3 Art 4 Early death 5 Selected works 6 Movies 7 References 8 External links

Youth

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa was born in Albi, Tarn in the Midi-Pyrénées région of France, the firstborn child of Comte Alphonse and Comtesse Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec. An aristocratic family (descendants of the Counts of Toulouse and Lautrec and the Viscounts of Montfa, a village and commune of the Tarn department of southern France). A younger brother was also born to the family on 28 August 1867, but died the following year.

Disability and health problems

Jules Chéret and Lautrec with poster

The Comte and Comtesse themselves were first cousins, and Henri suffered from a number of congenital health conditions attributed to this tradition of inbreeding.

At the age of 13 Henri fractured his right thigh bone, and at 14, the left.^[2] The breaks did not heal properly. Modern physicians attribute this to an unknown genetic disorder, possibly pycnodysostosis (also sometimes known as Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome),^[3] or a variant disorder along the lines of osteopetrosis, achondroplasia, or osteogenesis imperfecta.^[4] Rickets aggravated with praecox virilism has also been suggested. His legs ceased to grow, so that as an adult he was only 1.52 m (5 ft) tall,^[2][5] having developed an adult-sized torso, while retaining his child-sized legs, which were 0.70 m (27.5 in) long. He is also reported to have had hypertrophied genitals.^[6]

Paris

La Toilette, early painting

Physically unable to participate in most of the activities typically enjoyed by men of his age, Toulouse-Lautrec immersed himself in his art. He became an important Post-Impressionist painter, art nouveau illustrator, and lithographer; and recorded in his works many details of the late-19th-century bohemian lifestyle in Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec also contributed a number of illustrations to the magazine Le Rire during the mid-1890s. Toulouse-Lautrec was drawn to Montmartre, an area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and for being the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. Tucked deep into Montmartre was the garden of Monsieur Pere Foret where Toulouse-Lautrec executed a series of pleasant plein-air paintings of Carmen Gaudin, the same red-head model who appears in The Laundress (1888). When the nearby Moulin Rouge cabaret opened its doors, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters. Thereafter, the cabaret reserved a seat for him, and displayed his paintings.^[7] Among the well-known works that he painted for the Moulin Rouge and other Parisian nightclubs are depictions of the singer Yvette Guilbert; the dancer Louise Weber, known as the outrageous La Goulue ("The Glutton"), who created the "French Can-Can"; and the much more subtle dancer Jane Avril.

Tremblement de Terre

The invention of the cocktail "Earthquake" or Tremblement de Terre is attributed to Toulouse-Lautrec, a potent mixture containing half absinthe and half cognac, (in a wine goblet, 3 parts Absinthe and 3 parts Cognac sometimes served with ice cubes or shaken in a cocktail shaker filled with ice).^[8]

Art

Self-portrait in the crowd, at the Moulin Rouge

Throughout his career, which spanned less than 20 years, Toulouse-Lautrec created 737 canvases, 275 watercolors, 363 prints and posters, 5,084 drawings, some ceramic and stained glass work, and an unknown number of lost works.^[3] His debt to the Impressionists, in particular the more figurative painters Manet and Degas, is apparent. His style was also influenced by the classical Japanese woodprints which became popular in art circles in Paris. In the works of Toulouse-Lautrec can be seen many parallels to Manet's detached barmaid at A Bar at the Folies-Bergère and the behind-the-scenes ballet dancers of Degas. He excelled at capturing people in their working environment, with the colour and the movement of the gaudy night-life present, but the glamour stripped away. He was masterly at capturing crowd scenes in which the figures are highly individualised. At the time that 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, scenes of Parisian night-life, or intimate studies, has been described as both sympathetic and dispassionate.

Toulouse-Lautrec's skilled depiction of people relied on his painterly style which is highly linear and gives great emphasis to contour. He often applied the paint in long, thin brushstrokes which would often leave much of the board on which they are painted showing through. Many of his works may best be described as drawings in coloured paint.

Early death

An alcoholic for most of his adult life, Toulouse-Lautrec was placed in a sanatorium shortly before his death. He died from complications due to alcoholism and syphilis at the family estate in Malromé at the age of 36. He is buried in Verdelais, Gironde, a few kilometers from the Château of Malromé, where he died.

Toulouse-Lautrec's last words reportedly were: "Le vieux con!" ("The old fool!") This was his goodbye to his father.^[9]

After Toulouse-Lautrec's death, his mother, the Comtesse Adèle Toulouse-Lautrec, and Maurice Joyant, his art dealer, promoted his art. His mother contributed funds for a museum to be built in Albi, his birthplace, to house his works.

Selected works

Vincent van Gogh (1887)	At the Circus Fernando (1888)	Moulin Rouge - La Goulue, poster (1891)	Portrait of Gabrielle (1891)
Moulin Rouge poster (1891)	Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant, poster (1892)	La reine de joie (1892)	La Goulue arriving at the Moulin Rouge (1892)
At the Moulin Rouge: Two Women Waltzing (1892)	Avril (Jane Avril), poster (1893)	In Bed (1893)	Salon at the Rue des Moulins (1894)
The Medical Inspection at the Rue des Moulins Brothel (1894)	Yvette Guilbert| Le photographe, Place pigeon, 9 (1894)	The Two Girlfriends (c. 1894–95)	May Belfort (singing Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-wow), poster (1895)
The clown Cha-U-Kao at the Moulin Rouge (1895)	Marcelle Lender on stage (1895)	Alone (1896)	Jane Avril (1899)

Movies

Toulouse-Lautrec has been the subject of biographical films:

• in the John Huston film Moulin Rouge (1952), he is portrayed by Jose Ferrer
• Lautrec (1998) is a biographical movie directed by Roger Planchon^[10]
• Lautrec (1999) is a musical written by Charles Aznavour
• he is portrayed by John Leguizamo in Moulin Rouge! (2001)

References

1. ^ The New York Sun 11/02/2005
2. ^ ^{a b} "Why Lautrec was a giant". The Times. 10 December 2006. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article662158.ece. Retrieved 2007-12-08. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Angier, Natalie (6 June 1995). "What Ailed Toulouse-Lautrec? Scientists Zero In on a Key Gene". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7D61338F935A35755C0A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2007-12-08. 
4. ^ "Noble figure". The Guardian. 20 November 2004. http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,1355241,00.html. Retrieved 2007-12-08. 
5. ^ Fermigier, André, Toulouse-Lautrec, Presses Pocket, 1992
6. ^ Ayto, John, and Crofton, Ian, Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase & Fable, page 747. Excerpted from Google Book Search. [1]
7. ^ Blake Linton Wilfong Hooker Heroes
8. ^ "Absinthe Service and Historic Cocktails". AbsintheOnline.com. http://www.absintheonline.com/acatalog/Cocktails.html. Retrieved 2007-12-08. 
9. ^ "Toulouse Lautrec: The Full Story". Channel 4. http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/T/toulouse_lautrec/lautrec.html. Retrieved 2007-12-08. 
10. ^ Lautrec (1998) at the Internet Movie Database

External links

• - Le Château du Bosc, the castle where Henri spent a lot of time with his family. Nicole Tapié de Celeyran, one of his descendants, still lives in the castle and welcome you for visits

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec at Gallery of Art
• Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre at the National Gallery of Art
• www.Toulouse-Lautrec-Foundation.org - 352 works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• Website dedicated to Lautrec.
• Website about Lautrec with virtual tours.
• Factmonster page about Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de
• The Most Famous Paintings
• Toulouse-Lautrec and Paris exhibition at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

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