Editing Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (section)

==Paris==
[[File:1882, Toulouse-Lautrec, The Marble Polisher.jpg|thumb|left|{{ill|The Marble Polisher|qid=Q66155658|italic=yes|short=yes}}, 1882–1887, [[Princeton University Art Museum]], probably painted while a student of Fernand Cormon, demonstrating his classical training<ref>{{cite web |title=The Marble Polisher (1992-16) |url=http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/33681 |website=Princeton University Art Museum |publisher=Princeton University}}</ref>]]

During a stay in [[Nice, France]], 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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/laut/hd_laut.htm |title=Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) |website=www.metmuseum.org |access-date=2 November 2019}}</ref> 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.<ref name="TL-Book1" /> He was drawn to [[Montmartre]], the area of Paris known for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. Studying with Bonnat placed Toulouse-Lautrec in the heart of Montmartre, an area he rarely left over the next 20 years.

After Bonnat took a new job, Toulouse-Lautrec moved to the studio of [[Fernand Cormon]] in 1882 and studied for a further five years and established the group of friends he kept for the rest of his life. At this time, he met [[Émile Bernard (painter)|Émile Bernard]] and [[Vincent van Gogh]]. Cormon, whose instruction was more relaxed than Bonnat's, allowed his pupils to roam Paris, looking for subjects to paint. During this period, Toulouse-Lautrec had his first encounter with a prostitute (reputedly sponsored by his friends), which led him to paint his first painting of a prostitute in [[Montmartre]], a woman rumoured to be Marie-Charlet.<ref name="TL-Book1" />

[[File:(Albi) Rousse (La Toilette) - 1899 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Musée d'Orsay, Paris.jpg|thumb|''[[La toilette (Toulouse-Lautrec)|La toilette]]'', oil on board, 1889|alt=A thin woman's back and hair are prominent. She faces away from the viewer and has on only a towel around her waist and knee-high stockings.]]

=== Early career ===
In 1885, Toulouse-Lautrec began to exhibit his work at the cabaret of [[Aristide Bruant]]'s ''Mirliton''.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |url=http://www.parisartstudies.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=240&Itemid=1 |title=Paris Art Studies - Toulouse Lautrec Posters 1864–1901 |website=www.parisartstudies.com |access-date=2 November 2019 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801150826/http://www.parisartstudies.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=240&Itemid=1 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

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]].<ref name="TL-Book1" />

In 1885, Toulouse-Lautrec met [[Suzanne Valadon]]. He made several portraits of her and supported her ambition as an artist. It is believed that they were lovers and that she wanted to marry him. Their relationship ended, and Valadon attempted suicide in 1888.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Toulouse Lautrec |last=Neret |first=Gilles |publisher=[[Taschen]] |year=1999 |pages=196}}</ref>

=== 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 (art dealer)|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 [[Société des Artistes Indépendants|Salon des Indépendants]] regularly. He made several landscapes of Montmartre.<ref name="TL-Book1" /> Tucked deep into Montmartre in Monsieur Pere Foret's garden, Toulouse-Lautrec executed a series of pleasant [[en plein air]] paintings of Carmen Gaudin, the same red-headed model who appears in ''The Laundress'' (1888).

In 1890, during the banquet of the XX exhibition in Brussels, he challenged to a duel the artist [[Henry de Groux]], who criticised van Gogh's works. [[Paul Signac]] also declared he would continue to fight for Van Gogh's honour if Lautrec was killed. De Groux apologised for the slight and left the group, and the duel never took place.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Toulouse Lautrec |last=Gimferrer |first=Pere |publisher=Rizzoli |year=1990 |isbn=0-8478-1276-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bailey |first=Martin |date=2019-09-12 |title=New discoveries: Paul Signac painted watercolours of Van Gogh's asylum |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/discovered-paul-signac-watercolours-of-van-gogh-s-asylum |access-date=2021-09-23 |website=The Art Newspaper}}</ref>

Toulouse-Lautrec contributed several illustrations to the magazine ''[[Le Rire]]'' during the mid-1890s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.toulouselautrec.free.fr/litholerire_en.htm |title=Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec > Lithographies > Le Rire |website=www.toulouselautrec.free.fr}}</ref>

=== Interactions with women ===
In addition to his growing alcoholism, Toulouse-Lautrec also visited prostitutes.<ref name="wittels" /> He was fascinated by their lifestyle as well as that of the "urban underclass", and he incorporated those characters into his paintings.<ref>{{cite book |title=Biographical Dictionary of Literary Influences: The Nineteenth Century, 1800-1914 |url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict00powe |url-access=limited |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-313-30422-4 |editor1=Powell, John |page=[https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict00powe/page/n433 417] |editor2=Blakeley, Derek W. 
|editor3=Powell, Tessa}}</ref> 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&nbsp;... 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."<ref>{{harv|Toulouse-Lautrec, Donson|1982|p=XIV}}</ref>

The prostitutes inspired Toulouse-Lautrec. He would frequently visit a brothel located in Rue d'Amboise, where he had a favourite called Mireille.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Toulouse Lautrec|last=Neret|first=Gilles|publisher=Taschen|year=1999|isbn=3-8228-6524-9|location=Germany|pages=134–135}}</ref> 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 (Toulouse-Lautrec)|Le Lit]]'', and in 1894 he painted {{ill|Salón de la Rue des Moulins|it|Al Salon di rue des Moulins|nl|De Salon in de rue des Moulins|italic=yes}} from memory in his studio.<ref name=":0" />

Toulouse-Lautrec declared, "A model is always a stuffed doll, but these women are alive. I wouldn't venture to pay them the hundred [[French sol|sous]] to sit for me, and God knows whether they would be worth it. They stretch out on the sofas like animals, make no demand and they are not in the least bit conceited." He was well appreciated by the women, saying, "I have found girls of my own size! Nowhere else do I feel so much at home."<ref name=":0" />

=== The Moulin Rouge ===
When the [[Moulin Rouge]] cabaret opened in 1889,<ref name="auto"/> Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters. His mother had left Paris and, though he had a regular income from his family, making posters offered him a living of his own. Other artists looked down on the work, but he ignored them.<ref name ="Ch4-TL">{{cite web |title = Toulouse Lautrec: The Full Story |url = http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/T/toulouse_lautrec/lautrec.html |location = UK |publisher = Channel 4 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090528191455/http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/T/toulouse_lautrec/lautrec.html |archive-date = 28 May 2009 |access-date = 1 October 2010}}</ref> The cabaret reserved a seat for him and displayed his paintings.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wondersmith.com/heroes/lautrec.htm |title=Blake Linton Wilfong ''Hooker Heroes'' |publisher=Wondersmith.com |access-date=12 August 2013}}</ref> 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), who created the [[Can-can|French can-can]]; 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 [[Ambassadeurs|now iconic poster]] of his friend Aristide Bruant, when he moved there in 1892.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901|last=Neret |first=Gilles |publisher=[[Taschen]] |year=1999 |url=https://archive.org/details/henridetoulousel0000nere/ |pages=100–102|isbn=978-3-8228-6524-8}}</ref>