Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Image 1: Lautrec painting Lautrec.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, described in Life (1950) as a "talented, misshapen rake", was born in 1864,  grew up to have a very fragile health, and various physical deformities, the most famous one being, as visible on image 1, his short legs. Due to his strange looking physicality, he never really knew the true love of a woman, so he frequented the brothels of Paris' Montmartre. He is even known to have said to one of his models: "If you sang of desire people would understand. But love, my poor Yvette, love does not exist." (Life, 1964, p. 82). In Montmartre he became a central figure in the night life, and changed a big part of his artistic focus from fine art to posters, a choice that affects the way we see poster art today. He promoted the famous can can dance hall Moulin Rouge, individual dancers like Jane Avril and  La Goulue, as well as singers like Artistide Bruant, most of whom probably wouldn't have had the same fame, had it not been for Toulouse-Lautrec's interest in them. In 1899, his health collapsed, and Toulouse-Lautrec retreated from his work. After some time in a nursing home, he went back to his mother's house, where he died in 1901, age 37, of alcoholism and syphilis.


We all know that in order to be a great artist, you have to suffer. Toulouse-Lautrec sure did suffer, and I admire how he managed to turn his misfortune into beauty. I find it ironic, that when he was once hospitalized in a mental institution, he drew circus performances to prove his sanity to the doctors (Life, 1950, p. 96). From what I can tell, he himself was a part of a bigger circus, the nightlife of Montmartre. To me, the dancing girls and the prostitutes, who Lautrec depicted so often, were like horses of a circus. They were trapped doing what they did, looking pretty every evening, doing the same thing night after night, which, to the audience, must have been nothing more than another night out. This world of entertainment must only have been magical for the people who could choose whether to be in it or not. Lautrec chose to be a part of this society, and I think he saw himself as being more on the girls' side, than being himself one of the spectators of the show. This led to him treating the girls with much more respect than they were used to, and so they let him into their private lives, outside the smokey air of the dance halls and cafes.

Image 2: Poster by Toulouse-Lautrec

      Lautrec represents Montmartre very well at that time. In spite of being sensitive about his lack of physical attractiveness, Lautrec managed to handle life with humour, and made himself a favourite subject for his caricatures. Dressing up in costumes, posing for crazy photographs (Life, 1964, p. 82) and hosting big parties in his studio, he still never got the one thing he really wanted: the true love of a woman. You could say the same thing about most of Montmartre. The girls, the lights, the drinks probably all looked amazing during the night, almost like entering a fantasy world, but imagine how much of all this fun and free loving community was really just an act, even to oneself, to keep up the spirit in a world where nothing was given to you for free.

Image 3: Mademoiselle Nys by Toulouse-Lautrec

Image 4: Crouching Woman With Red Hair by Toulouse-Lautrec

    I keep wondering why he was so fascinated by the very bottom of society, and of course especially the prostitutes. Was it because he really did admire them, or did it just come from the fact that they were more or less the only women, who would talk to him? It seems to me like he's genuinely interested in them as human beings, and I honestly think that he got a lot of his inspiration from their strength. He was creating beautiful illusions, just like them, whether they were singers, dancers or prostitutes, and like they were trapped in poverty, he was trapped in his weak and strange looking body. Perhaps it also had to do with his general fascination of the body as an object of art: "Nothing exists but the [human] figure; landscape is nothing ... but an accessory." (Life, 1950, p. 94)

Sometimes I'm even tempted to think that he is being ironic about sexuality. Take for instance his painting Crouching Woman With Red Hair (1897). This is definitely not a very flattering way to portray a female body. She looks more like someone who has been told to pretend being a horse, even though she doesn't want to, than an attractive redhead. I don't really understand his fine art, and I can never figure out whether he is being serious or not. His posters however are made so well, that even an ignorant student like me gets it. That deserves some recognition!
      Toulouse-Lautrec's posters personalise the performers so much, that they make me more interested in the person behind the performance, than in the performance itself. I guess that is why his posters stand out, and why they worked so well. To know the person, you go see the show, and the show automatically gets better, if you're already a fan of the performer. Lautrec understood this, and he understood how to communicate, through a painting, his own personal interest in a person. I think Lautrec had a lot of empathy for his surroundings, and I think that was what kept him going. Having so many problems of his own, I think he eased his own existence by taking on other people's unfortune, for a while at least.

Image 5: Poster by Toulouse-Lautrec, La Chaine Simpson

Reference list:

• No author credited (1964), 'Women in an Artist's Life', Life, Oct 16th 1964, pp. 82-92 

• No author credited (1950), 'Toulouse-Lautrec', Life, May 15th 1950, pp. 93-100

 

Imagery:

• Image 1: Guibert, M. (1892), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec [Online]. Available at: http://www.all-art.org/history658_photography13-9.html (Accessed: 3 Nov 2010)

• Image 2: Toulouse-Lautrec, H. (1896), Troupe de Mlle Eglantine [Lithograph] [Online]. Available at: http://www.marysecasol.com/Art-World-Guide.html (Accessed: 1 Nov 2010)

• Image 3: Toulouse-Lautrec, H. (1899), Mademoiselle Nys [Oil on unprimed wood] [Online]. Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/european_paintings/mademoiselle_nys_henri_de_toulouse_lautrec/objectview_enlarge.aspx?page=97&sort=0&sortdir=asc&keyword=&fp=1&dd1=11&dd2=0&vw=1&collID=11&OID=110002287&vT=1&hi=0&ov=0 (Accessed: 12 November 2010)

• Image 4: Toulouse-Lautrec, H. (1897), Crouching Woman With Red Hair [Oil on cardboard] [Online]. Available at: http://www.abcgallery.com/T/toulouse-lautrec/toulouse-lautrec86.html (Accessed: 12 November 2010)

• Image 5: Toulouse-Lautrec, H. (1896), La Chaine Simpson [Lithographed poster] [Online]. Available at: http://arthistory.about.com/od/from_exhibitions/ig/toulouselautrec/nms_0208_hdtl_11-jpg.htm (Accessed: 12 November 2010)

 

Resources:

• Larson, K. (1985), 'Pure in Spirit', New York Magazine, Dec 2nd 1985, pp. 146-148

• No author credited (1953), 'Razzle-dazzle Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec', Life, Jan 19th 1953, pp. 64-68

• Geraldine Norman (1977), Nineteenth-century painters and painting: a dictionary, Part 2, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press

• Bond, R. C. (1988), 'The Gift of Toulouse-Lautrec', Orange Cost Magazine, Nov 1988, pp. 214-215