back
In his youth, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was often confined to
bed due to illness and physical challenges. It was during these
confinements that he discovered a love of drawing. Due to his
limited mobility and frail health, Toulouse-Lautrec often felt
like an outsider. When the artist moved to Paris in 1882, he
gravitated to the community of Montmartre, which was populated
with people marginalized from mainstream Parisian society.
Skilled as a caricaturist with an innate ability to
capture personalities, Toulouse-Lautrec became the prominent
poster artist for dancers, courtesans, and venues in his
neighborhood. His use of harsh angles, raking light, and often
voyeuristic compositions, reflected the hedonistic world in
which Toulouse-Lautrec lived and as he saw it.
Everywhere and always ugliness has its beautiful aspects; it is thrilling to discover them where nobody else has noticed them.
Born into an aristocratic family.
Studies in Paris in the prestigious Bonnat studio.
Sets up a studio in Montmartre.
Participates in collective exhibitions in Brussels and Paris.
The Moulin Rouge cabaret and nightclub opens, a source of inspiration and financing for Lautrec.
Paints At the Moulin Rouge, the Dance
Commissioned by the Moulin Rouge to create a poster advertising their famous can-can dancer, La Goulue
He turns to printmaking, creating several series over the next decade that feature nightclub dancers and prostitutes.
His health deteriorates and he is committed to a sanatorium to recuperate.
Dies at age 36 leaving behind a prolific body of work, including over 5,000 drawings, 700 paintings, 350 prints, and 275 watercolors.
1. Portrait of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1883, oil on canvas. Musée des Augustins, Property of the municipality, RO 1020 Image © Bernard Delorme and Daniel Martin.
2. Divan Japonais, 1892–1893, lithograph printed in four colors, wove paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on canvas. Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Henry P. Bequest of Clifford A. Furst, 1958, 58.621.17.
3. At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance, 1889–1890, oil McIlhenny Collection in memory of Frances P. McIlhenny, 1986, 1986-26-32.
4. At the Moulin Rouge, 1892–1895, oil on canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago, Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1928.610.