Toulouse-Lautrec: A Colorful Artist—A Colorful Life

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Moulin Rouge: La Goulue - 1891 - Lithograph in four colors (poster) - 191 x 117 cm - Private collection (click photo for larger image)French Post-Impressionist painter and printmaker Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) observed and documented with great psychological insight the personalities and facets of Parisian nightlife and entertainment in the 1890s. His use of free-flowing, expressive line, often becoming pure arabesque, resulted in highly rhythmical compositions. The extreme simplification in outline and movement and the use of large color areas make his posters some of his most powerful works.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Woman Pulling up her Stocking - 1894 - Oil on cardboard - 58 x 48 cm - Musee d'Orsay, Paris (click photo for larger image)Toulouse-Lautrec was the last in the line of a very long standing aristocratic family. Although he was a weak and often sickly child, he had already begun to hone his drawing and painting skills by age ten. As a result of two serious injuries (at ages twelve and fourteen)—his legs ceased to grow. Left with a body trunk of normal size, but with abnormally short legs (he was only 4 1/2 feet tall), he was “deprived of the physical life that a normal body would have permitted” and lived completely for his art. Montmarte was the center of the cabaret entertainment and bohemian life in Paris, which were primary subject matter for Toulouse-Lautrec. Dance halls, nightclubs, racetracks, and prostitutes were all committed to his canvases or realized in lithographs. He sketched numerous ideas sitting at a crowded nightclub table, later brining them to fruition in his studio.

Sadly, the artist became a heavy drinker, which ultimately led to the breakdown of his health. Toulouse-Lautrec died on September 9, 1901, at the family chateau of Malrome. Today, the family estate houses the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec. There are numerous works by this artist in MoMA’s permanent collection. My Museum Preview series—offered through the Center for Continuing Education—will include a program of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, on Thursday, October 13th. Please check their website for the schedule and join us!