Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , 1864-1901, French painter and lithographer, b. Albi. Son of a wealthy nobleman, Lautrec fell and broke both legs when he was a child. His permanently stunted growth has traditionally been seen as the result of this accident, but more recently doctors have theorized that it may have been the result of a rare genetic abnormality. Showing an early gift for drawing, he studied with Bonnat and Cormon and set up a studio of his own when he was 21. As a youth he was attracted by sporting subjects and admired and was influenced by the work of Degas .
His own work is, above all, graphic in nature, the paint never obscuring the strong, original draftsmanship. He detailed the music halls, circuses, brothels, and cabaret life of Paris with a remarkable objectivity born, perhaps, of his own isolation. His garish and artificial colors, the orange hair and electric green light of his striking posters, caught the atmosphere of the life they advertised. Lautrec's technical innovations in color lithography created a greater freedom and a new immediacy in poster design. His posters of the dancers and personalities at the Moulin Rouge cabaret are world renowned and have inspired countless imitations.
After a life of enormous productivity (more than 1,000 paintings, 5,000 drawings, and 350 prints and posters), debauchery, and alcoholism, Lautrec suffered a mental and physical collapse and died at the age of 37. His life has inspired numerous biographies, of varying accuracy. Although exhibitions of his work were not well received in his lifetime, he is now one of the world's most popular artists and is represented in most of the major museums of France and the United States. Many of his sketches and some paintings are in the Musée Lautrec of his native Albi. His painting At the Moulin de la Galette (1892) is in the Art Institute, Chicago; the lithograph Seated Female Clown (1896) is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Bibliography: See his correspondence, ed. by L. Goldschmidt and H. Schimmel (1969); complete lithographs and drypoints, ed. by J. Adémar (1965) and posters, intr. by E. Julien (1966); biographies by H. Perruchot (1960), P. Huisman (1964, repr. 1968), and J. B. Frey (1994); studies by D. Cooper (1969), F. Novotny (1969), J.-B. Naudin, G. Diego-Dortignac, and A. Daguin (1993), and D. Sweetman (2000).
Author not available, TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, HENRI DE.,
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research
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Lautrec's works paint another picture.(Scene)
The Boston Herald; 4/26/2002; Silver, Joanne; 696 words
; For more than a century, the Moulin Rouge in Paris' Montmartre has stood as an icon of bohemia, a place of artificial lights and shadowy characters caught in a frenzied dance. The man who did more than anyone else to construct this image, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), gained his reputation
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FRAMED
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; 5/28/2001; MARY LOUISE SCHUMACHER; 191 words
; FRAMED MAM'S PERMANENT COLLECTION Monday, May 28, 2001 The Milwaukee Art Museum's renovated and expanded galleries give the museum's permanent collection its best showcase in decades. Each Monday we feature one of the collection's works. "Moulin Rouge -- La Goulue" (1891) Artist: Henri de
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Toulouse-Lautrec; The glitter and the gutter.(ARTS & CULTURE)(ART)
The Washington Times; 3/26/2005; 641 words
; Byline: Joanna Shaw-Eagle, THE WASHINGTON TIMES Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) had an artistic love affair with the high-kicking can-can dancers, come-hither prostitutes and daring circus entertainers who peopled Montmartre, the racy turn-of-the-20th-century entertainment center and
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Moulin huge.(Brief Article)
U.S. News & World Report; 3/14/2005; Hallett, Vicky Silver, Edited By Marc; 43 words
; Party animal Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted Paris red . . . then depicted a blur of dance halls, brothels, and cabarets. His art is the basis of Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre (National Gallery of Art, March 20 to June 12; Art Institute of Chicago, July 16 to October 10).
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$4.7 million for art by Toulouse-Lautrec
Chicago Sun-Times; 6/20/1988; 42 words
; An oil painting of a young woman by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec fetched $4.7 million at an auction Sunday in Paris. An anonymous European bought "At Batignolles," painted in 1888, and also paid $1.26 million for Pablo Picasso's portrait of his sister, Lola. -
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