Prints as high art
Lautrec was able to raise the colour print and the lithographic poster to the level of ‘high art.’ His very first poster, Moulin rouge, was praised by Mellerio as the epitome of the modern fine-art print, with its large expanses of colour, expressive lines, and risqué subject matter.
Mellerio considered Lautrec’s prints to be even more important than his paintings. Lautrec evidently shared this view, as many of his paintings were done as studies for his graphic work.
Entertainment
Lautrec was the ultimate bohemian and the chronicler of night-life in cosmopolitan Paris. He captured the atmosphere and entertainment offered in bars and dance-halls like Le Chat Noir and Le Moulin Rouge, and immortalised illustrious artists like Yvette Guilbert and Jane Avril in a powerful, caricatural style.
Lautrec threw himself into the wild night-life of Montmartre, with the inevitable consequences: he died at the age of 36 from the effects of alcoholism and syphilis.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Moulin Rouge, La Goulue, poster for the Dance Hall Le Moulin Rouge, 1891
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Poster for the Café-concert Le Divan Japonais, 1893
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Café-concert (Au café-concert), 1894
Further reading
- André Mellerio, La Lithographie originale en couleurs, Paris 1898
- Wolfgang Wittrock, Toulouse-Lautrec. The Complete Prints, London 1985
- Richard Thomson et al., Toulouse-Lautrec, London 1991