henri de toulouse-lautrec // biography (1864-1901) / gallery / prints

//Biog.//

Leninimports.com

//HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC//

Known as: French painter

Born: November 24, 1864, Albi, Tarn, Midi-Pyrénées, France

Birthname: Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec

Height: 4 1/2 ft

Influenced by: Degas, Japanese prints

Knew: Emile Bernard, Vincent van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley

Date of death: September 9, 1901, Malromé, France (alcholism, syphilis)

Buried: Verdelais, Gironde

No, I didn't get the height of Toulouse-Lautrec wrong. He really was 4 1/2 ft. This came about as in his childhood he broke both his legs and his growth was subsequently stunted. But from all accounts he never let his lack of size get in the way or complain about it. He lived life to the full and threw himself into his work. He was a great painter and his legacy has become iconic.

It was his first teacher we have to thank who encouraged him to paint animals. He began studying art in Paris in 1882. Three years later he had his own studio in Montmartre. Early exhibitions include the Salon des Independants and Les Vingt in Brussells.

At 27, he produced his first posters which immdeiately brought him great recognition. The following year he made his first colour prints and had his first one-man exhibition before he was 30.

In the mid-1890s he travelled widely across Europe, visiting London, Portugal, Holland and Spain. A 2nd one-man exhibition came in 1896.

By the late 1890s, he was drinking heavily and his health began to suffer. He spent three months in a clinic recovering from alcoholism in 1899. It was during his convalescence that he worked on a series of circus drawings.

For a short time he made a recovery and returned to his old life and old ways, but the end was near. In 1901, he broke down completely. He was taken to his mother's country home, and died there. He was only 37.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted what he knew, what was around him. Dance-halls and cafes in Montmartre, most famously the Moulin Rouge; female clowns, nudes, actresses, circus artists ... life as he caught it in that moment. Nothing was added. No sentimetality, no blame, no hint of a deeper meaning. He subscribed to no artistic movement or espoused an aesthetic doctine.

And that, for me, is the strength of his work. The purity has never been equalled.

Toulouse Lautrec signed items, exhibition posters, ltd edn prints @ ebay.com (direct link to rarities)

Selected Works:

Riders (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia) (1880s)
Albert Grenier, ca.1887 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City) (1880s)
Portrait of Suzanne Valadon (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina) (1885)
Poudre de riz (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) (1887)
Portrait de François Gauzi (Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France) (1888)
La Première Communion (Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France) (1888)
Woman with an Umbrella (Berthe the Deaf in the Garden of Monsieur Forest) (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia) (1889)
The Model Resting (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles) (1889)
Moulin Rouge - La Goulue (Poster) (1891)
La Goulue arriving at the Moulin Rouge (Museum of Modern Art, New York City) (1892)
Au Moulin-Rouge (Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio) (1892)
At the Moulin Rouge (Art Institute of Chicago) (1892-95)
Monsieur Boileau at the Café (Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio) (1893)
Mille Marcelle Lender, Bowing,(en buste) (Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin) (1895)
La danse mauresque ou Les almées (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) (1895)
The Clownesse Cha-U-Kao (Oskar Reinhart Collection, Switzerland) (1895)
Miss May Belfour en cheveux (Lithograph) (Wright Museum of Art at Beloit College, Wisconsin) (1895)
La Revue Blanche (Lithograph) (Wright Museum of Art at Beloit College, Wisconsin) (1895)
Seated Female Clown, Mlle Cha-U-Kao (Lithograph) (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia) (1896)
La Clownesse in the Moulin Rouge (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia) (1897)
Au Cirque: Entrée en Piste (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles) (1899)
The Jockey (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas) (1899)
Émilie, late 1890s (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City) (1890s)
En observation - M. Fabre, Officier de reserve (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina) (1901)

Collections (not listed above):

Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, Scotland
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Italy
Art Collection of the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Colombia
Courtauld Inst., London
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
Louvre, Paris
Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi, France
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
National Gallery, London, UK
Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
San Diego Museum of Art, California
Städel Museum, Frankfurt
Tate, London