Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Biografía

Renowned Post-Impressionist painter, lithographer, and illustrator Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec captured the elegance and excitement of Parisian nightlife during the Belle Epoque. Though he was an aristocrat by birth, the artist was a fixture of the avant-garde bohemian scene centered in the Montmartre neighborhood—home of the famed Moulin Rouge, for which he made a series of promotional posters. Lautrec made the local artists, singers, showgirls, and prostitutes his subjects, capturing them in flat color, strong outlines, and unconventional angles and crops. Lautrec’s approach was inspired by Edo-period Japanese woodblock printing (known as ukiyo-e) and by fellow artists Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet—all three were keen observers of social culture. Today, Lautrec’s work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, and the Tate, among other institutions. In 2005, his painting La blanchisseuse (1886–87) sold for nearly $22.5 million at auction.