The Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec at the MoMA: Women From All Walks of Life

A preeminent artist of Belle Époque Paris, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) brought the language of the late-19th- century avant-garde to a broad public through his famous posters, prints, and illustrations for journals and magazines. His work allows entry into many facets of Parisian life, from politics to the rise of popular entertainment in the form of cabarets and café-concerts.

 

 

Organized thematically, the exhibition explores five subjects that together create a portrait of Lautrec’s Paris: café-concerts and dance halls; actors, singers, dancers, and performers; his sensitive depictions of women from all walks of life, including his landmark portfolio Elles, depicting prostitutes during nonworking hours; his creative circle, highlighting designs for song sheets for popular music, programs for avant-garde theatrical productions, and his contributions to magazines and intellectual reviews; and the pleasures of the capital. The exhibition features over 100 examples of the best-known works created during the apex of his career. The Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec: Prints and Posters is organized by Sarah Suzuki, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, MoMA.

Lautrec made the venues and performers of late-19th-century Paris famous through his posters and prints, and in turn, it was his work for them that brought him the greatest acclaim. Among those in Lautrec’s spotlight were the dancer *La Goulue (born Louise Weber), featured in several lithographs, including La Goulue (1894) and Au Moulin Rouge, La Goulue et sa Soeur (1892), that reference Lautrec’s debt to depictions of actors in 18th-century Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts. As in the Japanese prints, Lautrec often uses signs and symbols — a specific gesture, an accessory or accoutrement, a hairstyle — rather than a portrait likeness to indicate his subject. Other performers featured include Cha-U-Kao, the Moulin Rouge clown whose name and costume were inspired by Japanese motifs — depicted in La Clownesse au Moulin Rouge (1897) and La Danse au Moulin Rouge (1897) — and May Milton, an Irish actress who had come to Paris with a British dance troupe and who is often marked by her pug nose and a peculiar kind of hat, as depicted on the cover of the song sheet Eros vanné (1894).