HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864–1901)

French painter and lithographer. His color lithographs depict actors, music-hall singers,
prostitutes, and waitresses from the 1890s in Montmartre: the "Moulin Rouge" series (1894) is
particularly well known.

Considered one of the most important painters in the post-Impressionist

era in the late 19th century His illustration and print works however show
clear indications of the prominent art nouveau style in this genre.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec —chronicled the colorful, provocative and

adventurous Parisian nightlife, and the bohemian lifestyle of turn-of-the
century Paris, most commonly known and associated with the images of
the Moulin Rouge club in popular culture today. He contributed
illustrations to popular publications and magazines of the time such as Le
Rire. Other famous French painters during the post-Impressionist
creative period were Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, and Paul
Gauguin. Toulouse-Lautrec mostly moved in the social circles in
Montmartre, the well-known Parisian haunt for bohemians, fellow artists,
writers, philosophers, and other personalities.

An aristocratic, alcoholic dwarf known for his louche lifestyle, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec created
art that was inseparable from his legendary life. His career lasted just over a decade and
coincided with two major developments in late nineteenth-century Paris: the birth of modern
printmaking and the explosion of nightlife culture. Lautrec’s posters promoted
Montmartreentertainers as celebrities, and elevated the popular medium of the advertising
lithograph to the realm of high art. His paintings of dancehall performers and prostitutes are
personal and humanistic, revealing the sadness and humor hidden beneath rice powder and
gaslights. Though he died tragically young (at age thirty-six) due to complications from alcoholism
and syphilis, his influence was long-lasting. It is fair to say that without Lautrec, there would be no
Andy Warhol

His sympathy and fascination for the marginal in society, as well as his keen caricaturist’s eye,
may be partly explained by his own physical handicap. Lautrec eventually established himself as
the premier poster artist of Paris and was often commissioned to advertise famous performers in
his prints

The style and content of Lautrec’s posters were heavily influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e prints.
Areas of flat color bound by strong outlines, silhouettes, cropped compositions, and oblique angles
are all typical of woodblock prints by artists like Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) and Ando
Hiroshige (1797–1858)

Lautrec’s prints often display dazzling technical effects, as new innovations in lithography during
the late nineteenth century permitted larger prints, more varied colors, and nuanced textures. The
artist frequently employed the spattered ink Technique known as crachis, seen in his series of
prints depicting Miss Loïe Fuller

In many ways, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s short but colorful life mirrored the very subjects of his
equally vibrant and expressive illustrations, and it is this rarity of an artist’s intimacy with the world
of his art that makes his works even more valuable and precious today.
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http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/laut/hd_laut.htm
http://totallyhistory.com/henri-de-toulouse-lautrec/

he Toulouse-Lautrec family is actually Anglophilic and despite his lack of proficiency in English,
Toulouse-Lautrec travelled to London and engaged more work in illustrating posters for some
businesses. He also met and befriended the literary figure Oscar Wilde.

Toulouse-Lautrec’s emotional troubles due to his physical handicap continued to hound him in
adulthood, unfortunately, and he turned to alcohol to deal with the distress. He enjoyed beer, wine,
and American-style mixed drinks and cocktails, which were just beginning to become popular at that
time. A cocktail drink was even attributed or supposedly created by Toulouse-Lautrec, utilizing
absinthe, the popular distilled alcohol and addictive substance during that time.

By 1893, Toulouse-Lautrec began suffering the consequences of his alcoholism, which led to his being
entered into a sanatorium in 1899. Unfortunately, he passed away just shortly after in 1901 due to
alcoholic complications and syphilis. His mother sought to promote his art even after his death,
eventually establishing the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, which today houses the world’s largest
collection of works by the painter.