Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

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Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (Template:IPA), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century allowed him to produce a collection of enticing, elegant, and provocative images of the sometimes decadent affairs of those times.

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 being 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Henri<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa was born at the Château du Bosc, Camjac, Aveyron, in the south of France, the firstborn child of Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Montfa (1838–1913)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Adèle Zoë Tapié de Celeyran (1841–1930).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> If Toulouse-Lautrec had outlived his father, he would have inherited the family title of Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

After the death of his brother, Toulouse-Lautrec's parents separated, and a nanny cared for him.<ref name=TL-Book1>Author Unknown, "Toulouse-Lautrec" – published Grange Books. Template:ISBN Bookfinder – Toulouse Lautrec Template:Webarchive</ref> 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".<ref name=TL-Book1/><ref>ArT Blog: Toulouse-Lautrec at the Circus: The "Horse and Performer" Drawings blogs.princeton.edu Template:Webarchive</ref>

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.<ref name=TL-Book1/>

Disability and health problems

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Mr. Toulouse paints Mr. Lautrec (Template:Circa), a photomontage by Maurice Guibert

Toulouse-Lautrec's parents were first cousins (their mothers were sisters),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and his congenital health conditions have often been attributed to a family history of inbreeding.<ref>Toulouse-Lautrec, H., Natanson, T., & Frankfurter, A. M. (1950). Toulouse-Lautrec: The Man. N.p. p. 120. Template:OCLC</ref>

At the age of 13, Toulouse-Lautrec fractured his right femur, and at age 14, he fractured his left femur.<ref name="TheTimes">Template:Cite web</ref> The breaks did not heal properly. Modern physicians attribute this to an unknown genetic disorder, possibly pycnodysostosis (sometimes known as Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome),<ref name="Valdes-Socin 2021">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Angier">Template:Cite news</ref> or a variant disorder along the lines of osteopetrosis, achondroplasia, or osteogenesis imperfecta.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Toulouse-Lautrec's legs ceased to grow when he reached Template:Convert.<ref>Harris, Nathaniel (1989). The Art of Toulouse-Lautrec. New York: Gallery Books. p. 27. Template:OCLC.</ref> He developed an adult torso while retaining his child-sized legs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Paris

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Template:Ill, 1882–1887, Princeton University Art Museum, probably painted while a student of Fernand Cormon, demonstrating his classical training<ref>Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite web</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 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" />

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.

La toilette, oil on board, 1889

Early career

In 1885, Toulouse-Lautrec began to exhibit his work at the cabaret of Aristide Bruant's Mirliton.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite book</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, 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.<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>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Toulouse-Lautrec contributed several illustrations to the magazine Le Rire during the mid-1890s.<ref>Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite book</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 ... 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>Template:Harv</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">Template:Cite book</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, and in 1894 he painted Template:Ill 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 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">Template:Cite web</ref> The cabaret reserved a seat for him and displayed his paintings.<ref>Template:Cite web</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 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 now iconic poster of his friend Aristide Bruant, when he moved there in 1892.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

London

File:Brooklyn Museum - Woman at the Tub from the Portfolio Elles (Femme au Tub ) - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg

Woman at the Tub from the portfolio Elles (1896)

Toulouse-Lautrec's family were Anglophiles,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and though he was not as fluent as he pretended to be, he spoke English well enough.<ref name="Ch4-TL" /> He travelled to London, where he was commissioned by the J. & E. Bella company to make a poster advertising their paper confetti (plaster confetti was banned after the 1892 Mardi Gras)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the bicycle advert La Chaîne Simpson.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

While in London, Toulouse-Lautrec met and befriended Oscar Wilde.<ref name="Ch4-TL" /> When Wilde faced imprisonment in Britain, Toulouse-Lautrec became a very vocal supporter of him, and his portrait of Oscar Wilde was painted the same year as Wilde's trial.<ref name="Ch4-TL" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Alcoholism

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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 have conjectured may have contributed to his abuse of alcohol.<ref name=info>Template:Cite web</ref>

Toulouse-Lautrec initially drank only beer and wine, but his tastes expanded into spirits, namely absinthe.<ref name="wittels">Template:Cite book</ref> The "Earthquake Cocktail" (Tremblement de Terre) is attributed to Toulouse-Lautrec: a potent mixture containing half absinthe and half cognac in a wine goblet.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Because of his underdeveloped legs, he walked with the aid of a cane, which he hollowed out and kept filled with liquor in order to ensure that he was never without alcohol.<ref name="Ch4-TL" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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 the importance of culinary values.<ref name="leaf">Leaf, Alexandra (1994). The Impressionists' Table: Gastronomy & Recipes of 19th-century France. New York: Rizzoli. pp. 7, 21-23. Template:ISBN. Template:OCLC. Template:Registration required</ref> Before he became widely known as a painter, he was called "Henri the cook" by his cousins.<ref>Beaute, Georges; Attems, Mary (1982). A Toulouse-Lautrec Album. Transl. W. Michael Lovett; Mana Derakhshani. Salt Lake City: Gibbs M. Smith, Inc. p. 62. Template:ISBN. Template:OCLC.</ref>

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 legendary parties for which he designed the menu (which were often artworks in themselves), bought and prepared the food, and created and often invented entirely 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. 300 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.<ref>O'Connor, Patrick (1991). Toulouse-Lautrec: The Nightlife of Paris. Phaidon. p. 9. Template:OCLC. Template:Registration required</ref><ref name="leaf" />

Lautrec was part of a group of gourmands, initially formed by Gustave Geffroy (1855–1926), the historian of the Impressionists, and Claude Monet, who met up every Friday night for dinner at Drouant, a restaurant in the Palais Garnier neighborhood.<ref name="mac">Mack, Gerstle (1953)[1938]. Toulouse-Lautrec. New York: A.A. Knopf. pp. 158-159. Template:OCLC. Template:Registration required

Joyant, Maurice (1930). La Cuisine de Monsieur Momo, Célibataire. Editions Pellet. Template:OCLC.
Natanson, Thadée (1951). "Toulouse-Lautrec: The Man". Art News Annual. 20: 77-85. Template:OCLC.</ref> After Lautrec's death, his close friend Maurice Joyant published Lautrec's collection of recipesTemplate:Sndashsome original, some adaptedTemplate:Sndashin the book La Cuisine de Monsieur Momo, Célibataire (1930), along with a color book frontispiece of Toulouse Lautrec Cooking by Vuillard.<ref name="mac" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Sooke, Alastair (28 July 2014). "How to cook like Henri Toulouse-Lautrec" Template:Webarchive. BBC. Culture. Retrieved 21 August 2024.

Leaf, Alexandra (1995)[1966]. "Preface". In Toulouse-Lautrec, Henry de and Maurice Joyant. The Art of Cuisine. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Template:ISBN. Template:OCLC.
- Joyant, Maurice (1966) The Art of Cuisine. New York: Crescent Books. Template:OCLC.
Croft-Cooke, Rupert (1969). Exotic Food: Three Hundred of the Most Unusual Dishes in Western Cookery. London: George Allen & Unwin. p. 130. Template:ISBN. Template:OCLC. Template:Registration required
Stuckey, Charles (Winter 2017). "Art and Food". Gagosian Quarterly. Retrieved 23 August 2024.</ref> An English translation, entitled The Art of Cuisine was published in 1966.<ref>Grigson, J. Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book (1984), p. 422.</ref>

Death

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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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> While committed, he drew 39 circus portraits. After his release, he returned to the Paris studio and travelled throughout France.<ref>Template:Harv</ref> Both his physical and mental health began to decline due to alcoholism and syphilis.<ref name="foundationbio">Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name="foundationbio"/><ref name="bennett">Template:Cite web</ref> Toulouse-Lautrec's last words reportedly were "Le vieux con!" ("The old fool!"), his goodbye to his father.<ref name="Ch4-TL"/>

After Toulouse-Lautrec's death, his mother, Comtesse Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, and his art dealer, Maurice Joyant, continued promoting his artwork. His mother contributed funds for a museum to be created in Albi, his birthplace, to show his works. The Musée Toulouse-Lautrec owns the most extensive collection of his works.

Art

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - At the Moulin Rouge - Google Art Project.jpg

At the Moulin Rouge, 1892, Art Institute of Chicago. Self-portrait in the crowd (background center).

File:Lautrec moulin rouge, la goulue (poster) 1891.jpg

Moulin Rouge: La Goulue, poster (1891)

In a career of less than 20 years, Toulouse-Lautrec created:

737 paintings on canvas
275 watercolours
363 prints and posters
5,084 drawings
some ceramic and stained-glass work
an unknown (80+)<ref>Sugana, G. M. (1987)[1969]. The Complete Paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec. Penguin Books. p. 84. Template:OCLC.</ref> number of lost works<ref name="Angier" />

Toulouse-Lautrec's debt to the Impressionists, particularly the more figurative painters like Manet and Degas, is apparent, that within his works, one can draw parallels to the detached barmaid at A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Manet and the behind-the-scenes ballet dancers of Degas. Toulouse-Lautrec's style was also influenced by the Ukiyo-e genre of Japanese woodblock prints, which became popular in the Parisian art world.<ref>Berger, Klaus. (1992) Japonisme in Western Painting from Whistler to Matisse. Translated by David Britt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 199. Template:ISBN.</ref>

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.Template:Citation needed 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".Template:Citation needed

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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name="BBC 2018">Template:Cite web</ref>

Media

Films

Moulin Rouge (1952): A film about the artist, portrayed by José Ferrer
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<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.
Template:Ill, 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Selected works

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

References

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External links

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