Europe 2023

This afternoon as the temperature starting climbing we headed to the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec museum. Since 1922, the Berbie Palace, the former residence of Albi’s bishops, has housed a wonderful collection of Toulouse-Lautrec’s work, that was predominantly donated by his family.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born in Albi in 1864 into a wealthy family. His father Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec and his mother, Adèle Tapié de Céleyran, were first cousins. Henri’s fragile constitution and the genetic illness he suffered from that resulted in him having very short legs was more than likely the result of this intermarriage.

From an early age Toulouse-Lautrec showed an interest in drawing and sketching. There were long periods during his childhood that he spent recovering from a range of treatments. Early on he enjoyed sketching and drawing animals and landscapes and activities from everyday life. In Paris, his first tutor was a friend of his father’s, animal painter René Princeteau, with whom he perfected his study of animal features, especially horses.

René recommended him to Léon Bonnat’s free studio - he was a famous portraitist and history painter. He also was a pupil of Fernand Cormon, where he met many students who would become avant-garde painters like Louis Anquetin, Emile Bernard and Vincent Van Gogh. Like them, he was attuned to modern and avant-garde movements that were sweeping through painting.

Lautrec devoted his spare time to making portraits and journal illustrations. These early portraits are influenced by Impressionism - outdoor portraits, characters captured in their everyday life, a palette of light and bright colour applied with large strokes.

Prostitution was a recurrent theme in the 19th century, both in painting and literature. Like Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Louis Anquetin or Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, took an interest in this subject. He focused on depicting the prostitutes’ daily life, that were free of voyeurism but with tenderness. Apart from a few bawdy sketches he minimised the sexual aspect and endeavoured to depict the daily life, behaviours and to unveil the sensuality of typical gestures of these women that only an artist living among them could do.

In 1891, when Toulouse-Lautrec was becoming known as an illustrator of the Montmartre types, Moulin Rouge’s directors Joseph Oiler and Charles Zidler commissioned him his first poster: Moulin Rouge, La Goulue, in which he offered a striking view of the attraction of the moment: the “cancan”. The poster was a huge hit and still is to this day. This success prompted Toulouse-Lautrec to focus on the creation of posters and more widely of lithographs. Between 1891 and 1900 he created 31 posters and around 325 lithographs that gave him the opportunity to become better known to a wider public. They were made with as much attention to detail as his paintings.

From 1898 until his death on September 9th, 1901 in Gironde, Toulouse-Lautrec endured a difficult time due to illness and substance abuse. For a short period he was committed to a clinic in Neuilly in May 1899. On his release he was supported by his publishers and closest friends. He continued to produce works until his death.Read more