Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec {too-looz'-loh-trek'}, b. Albi,
France, Nov. 24, 1864, was a leading postimpressionist artist whose paintings, lithography, and posters
contributed much to the development of Art Nouveau in the 1890s. He was also a harsh and witty chronicler
of the gaudy nightlife and the sordid elements of late-19th-century Parisian society.
A sickly and sheltered child of an aristocratic family,
Toulouse-Lautrec from an early age concentrated on observing and drawing, rather than participating in,
social activities. This tendency toward dispassionate observation was reinforced tragically when two
falls (1878-79), abetted by bone disease, resulted in crippling injuries to his legs, which thereafter
remained stunted. A grotesque-looking
cripple, with the legs of a boy and the torso of a young man, he concentrated more than ever on developing
his career as an artist.
After failing his first baccalaureate examinations and
receiving his parents' consent to study art, Toulouse-Lautrec studied (1882) with the academic painter
Leon Bonnat and then entered (1883) the atelier of Fernand Cormon, where he befriended such other
avant-garde artists as Vincent van Gogh. Dating from this time are several
psychologically penetrating portraits, especially of his mother, that show in their color and brushwork
his absorption of impressionism. In the later 1880s he was influenced by Japanese prints, whose large
areas of a single color and strong contours and patterning he emulated. An even more formative influence on the young artist was the work of Edgar
Degas, whose concern with movement and expression Toulouse-Lautrec began to interpret in a way that
stressed angular protrusions of the body and outlandish behavior.
He was by this time haunting the dance halls and
nightclubs of Montmartre, taking his subjects from his observations of what occurred on stage and among
the patrons. To convey the frenetic and artificial atmosphere of these pleasure spots in such works as
At the Moulin Rouge (1892; Art Institute of Chicago) and La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge (1892; Museum of
Modern Art, New York City), he chose acid and garish colors and adopted a drawing style that is almost
grotesque in its exaggerations. He applied the same techniques to the striking posters he designed
(1890s) to advertise night spots and to immortalize the style and mannerisms of their most celebrated
performers, including the dancers Jane Avril and Loie Fuller and the singers Aristide Bruant and Yvette
Guilbert. In creating these famous works Toulouse-Lautrec greatly advanced the art of color lithography.
His surviving drawings and sketches for the posters give the effect of speed and casualness, but in fact
they represent a painstaking discipline and mastery in their extended use of line and reduction to
essentials. The linear and uncluttered appearance of these works, as well as their flat, almost
two-dimensional quality, owed much to Japanese art.
Alcoholism led to the failure of his health in 1899,
and for the last few years of his life he confined his efforts to painting or drawing circus and jockey
scenes from memory. After paralysis struck, Toulouse-Lautrec died at Malrome on Sept. 9, 1901.
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Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec {too-looz'-loh-trek'}, b. Albi,
France, Nov. 24, 1864, was a leading postimpressionist artist whose paintings, lithography, and posters
contributed much to the development of Art Nouveau in the 1890s. He was also a harsh and witty chronicler
of the gaudy nightlife and the sordid elements of late-19th-century Parisian society.
A grotesque-looking
cripple, with the legs of a boy and the torso of a young man, he concentrated more than ever on developing
his career as an artist.
An even more formative influence on the young artist was the work of 
He applied the same techniques to the striking posters he designed
(1890s) to advertise night spots and to immortalize the style and mannerisms of their most celebrated
performers, including the dancers Jane Avril and Loie Fuller and the singers Aristide Bruant and Yvette
Guilbert. In creating these famous works Toulouse-Lautrec greatly advanced the art of color lithography.
His surviving drawings and sketches for the posters give the effect of speed and casualness, but in fact
they represent a painstaking discipline and mastery in their extended use of line and reduction to
essentials. The linear and uncluttered appearance of these works, as well as their flat, almost
two-dimensional quality, owed much to Japanese art.
