Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator. His immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris's Belle Époque in the late 19th century allowed him to produce popular works of art from decadent affairs.
Born into the aristocracy, Toulouse-Lautrec broke both his legs during adolescence, leaving him with a stunted appearance. In later life, he developed an affinity for brothels and prostitutes that directed the subject matter for many of his works, which record details of the late-19th-century bohemian lifestyle in Paris. He is among the painters described as Post-Impressionists, with Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Georges Seurat also commonly considered as belonging in this loose group.
Early life Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa was born at Demoiselles d'Imbert du Bosc (his great-aunts) home at rue de l'École Mage (presently 14, rue Henri de Toulouse Lautrec), Albi, in the south of France, the firstborn child of Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Montfa (1838–1913) and Adèle Zoë Tapié de Celeyran (1841–1930). He was a member of an aristocratic family (descended from both the Counts of Toulouse and Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, as well as the Viscounts of Montfa). His younger brother was born in 1867 but died the following year. Both sons enjoyed the titres de courtoisie of Comte. If Toulouse-Lautrec had outlived his father, he would have inherited the family title of Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec.
After the death of his brother, Toulouse-Lautrec's parents separated, and a nanny cared for him.Author Unknown, "Toulouse-Lautrec" – published Grange Books. Bookfinder – Toulouse Lautrec At the age of eight, Toulouse-Lautrec lived with his mother in Paris, where he drew sketches and caricatures in his exercise workbooks. A friend of his father, René Princeteau, sometimes visited to give informal lessons. Some of Toulouse-Lautrec's early paintings are of horses, a speciality of Princeteau's and a subject Toulouse-Lautrec later revisited in his "Circus Paintings".ArT Blog: Toulouse-Lautrec at the Circus: The "Horse and Performer" Drawings blogs.princeton.edu
In 1875, Toulouse-Lautrec returned to Albi because his mother had concerns about his health. He took thermal baths at Amélie-les-Bains, and his mother consulted doctors in the hope of finding a way to improve her son's growth and development.
Disability and health problems
Toulouse-Lautrec's parents were first cousins (their mothers were sisters), and his congenital health conditions have often been attributed to a family history of inbreeding.Toulouse-Lautrec, H., Natanson, T., & Frankfurter, A. M. (1950). Toulouse-Lautrec: The Man. N.p. p. 120.
At the age of 13, Toulouse-Lautrec fractured his right femur, and at age 14, he fractured his left femur. The breaks did not heal properly. Modern physicians attribute this to an unknown genetic disorder, possibly pycnodysostosis (sometimes known as 'Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome'), or a variant disorder along the lines of osteopetrosis, achondroplasia, or osteogenesis imperfecta. Toulouse-Lautrec's legs ceased to grow when he reached .Harris, Nathaniel (1989). The Art of Toulouse-Lautrec. New York: Gallery Books. p. 27. . He developed an adult torso while retaining his child-sized legs.
Paris
During a stay in Nice on the French Riviera, his progress in painting and drawing impressed Princeteau, who persuaded Toulouse-Lautrec's parents to allow him to return to Paris and study under the portrait painter Léon Bonnat. He returned to Paris in 1882. Toulouse-Lautrec's mother had high ambitions and, with the aim of her son becoming a fashionable and respected painter, used their family's influence to gain him entry to Bonnat's studio. He was drawn to Montmartre, the area of Paris known for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. Studying with Bonnat placed Toulouse-Lautrec in the heart of Montmartre, an area he rarely left over the next 20 years.
After Bonnat took a new job, Toulouse-Lautrec moved to the studio of Fernand Cormon in 1882 and studied for a further five years and established the group of friends he kept for the rest of his life. At this time, he met Émile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh. Cormon, whose instruction was more relaxed than Bonnat's, allowed his pupils to roam Paris, looking for subjects to paint. During this period, Toulouse-Lautrec had his first encounter with a prostitute (reputedly sponsored by his friends), which led him to paint his first painting of a prostitute in Montmartre, a woman rumoured to be Marie-Charlet.
Early career In 1885, Toulouse-Lautrec began to exhibit his work at the cabaret of Aristide Bruant's Mirliton.
With his studies finished, Toulouse-Lautrec participated in an exposition in 1887 in Toulouse using the pseudonym "Tréclau", the verlan of the family name "Lautrec". He later exhibited in Paris with Van Gogh and Louis Anquetin.
In 1885, Toulouse-Lautrec met Suzanne Valadon. He made several portraits of her and supported her ambition as an artist. It is believed that they were lovers and that she wanted to marry him. Their relationship ended, and Valadon attempted suicide in 1888.
Rise to recognition In 1888, the Belgian critic Octave Maus invited Lautrec to present eleven pieces at the Les XX (the 'Twenties') exhibition in Brussels in February. Theo van Gogh, the brother of Vincent van Gogh, bought Poudre de Riz ('Rice Powder') for 150 francs for the Goupil & Cie gallery. From 1889 to 1894, Toulouse-Lautrec took part in the Salon des Indépendants regularly. He made several landscapes of Montmartre. Tucked deep into Montmartre in Monsieur Pere Foret's garden, Toulouse-Lautrec executed a series of pleasant en plein air paintings of Carmen Gaudin, the same red-headed model who appears in The Laundress (1888).
In 1890, during the banquet of Les XX exhibition in Brussels, he challenged to a duel the artist Henry de Groux, who criticised van Gogh's works. Paul Signac also declared he would continue to fight for Van Gogh's honour if Lautrec was killed. De Groux apologised for the slight and left the group, and the duel never took place.
Toulouse-Lautrec contributed several illustrations to the magazine Le Rire during the mid-1890s.
Interactions with women In addition to his growing alcoholism, Toulouse-Lautrec also visited prostitutes. He was fascinated by their lifestyle as well as that of the "urban underclass", and he incorporated those characters into his paintings. Fellow painter Édouard Vuillard later said that while Toulouse-Lautrec did engage in sex with prostitutes, "the real reasons for his behaviour were moral ones ... Lautrec was too proud to submit to his lot, as a physical freak, an aristocrat cut off from his kind by his grotesque appearance. He found an affinity between his condition and the moral penury of the prostitute."
The prostitutes inspired Toulouse-Lautrec. He would frequently visit a brothel located in Rue d'Amboise, where he had a favourite called Mireille. He created about a hundred drawings and fifty paintings inspired by the life of these women. In 1892 and 1893, he created a series of two women in bed together called Le Lit, and in 1894 he painted from memory in his studio.
Toulouse-Lautrec declared, "A model is always a stuffed doll, but these women are alive. I wouldn't venture to pay them the hundred sous to sit for me, and God knows whether they would be worth it. They stretch out on the sofas like animals, make no demand and they are not in the least bit conceited." He was well appreciated by the women, saying, "I have found girls of my own size! Nowhere else do I feel so much at home."
The Moulin Rouge When the Moulin Rouge cabaret opened in 1889, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters. His mother had left Paris and, though he had a regular income from his family, making posters offered him a living of his own. Other artists looked down on the work, but he ignored them. The cabaret reserved a seat for him and displayed his paintings. Among the works that he painted for the Moulin Rouge and other Parisian nightclubs are depictions of the singer Yvette Guilbert; the dancer Louise Weber, better known as La Goulue ('The Glutton'); and the much subtler dancer Jane Avril.
Other café-concerts also commissioned posters from Toulouse-Lautrec, such as the Café des Ambassadeurs, for which he made the now iconic poster of his friend Aristide Bruant, when he moved there in 1892.
London
Toulouse-Lautrec's family were Anglophiles, and though he was not as fluent as he pretended to be, he spoke English well enough. He travelled to London, where he was commissioned by the J. & E. Bella company to make a poster advertising their paper confetti (plaster confetti was banned after the 1892 Mardi Gras) and the bicycle advert La Chaîne Simpson.
While in London, Toulouse-Lautrec met and befriended Oscar Wilde. When Wilde faced imprisonment in Britain, Toulouse-Lautrec became a very vocal supporter of him, and his portrait of Oscar Wilde was painted the same year as Wilde's trial.
Lifestyle Alcoholism
Toulouse-Lautrec was mocked for his short stature and physical appearance, which some biographers theorise may have contributed to his alcoholism.
Initially, Toulouse-Lautrec only drank beer and wine, but his tastes expanded into spirits, namely absinthe. The "Earthquake Cocktail" (Tremblement de Terre) is attributed to Toulouse-Lautrec: a potent mixture containing half absinthe and half cognac in a wine goblet. Because of his underdeveloped legs, he walked with the aid of a cane, which he hollowed out and kept filled with liquor.
Cooking skills Like Claude Monet, Lautrec was known for his cooking. Culinary historian Alexandra Leaf highlights Monet and Lautrec as the two "most serious gourmets" among their peers. Lautrec's love for cooking stemmed from his family upbringing and early childhood, where he first learned culinary values.Leaf, Alexandra (1994). The Impressionists' Table: Gastronomy & Recipes of 19th-century France. New York: Rizzoli. pp. 7, 21-23. . . Before he became widely known as a painter, he was called "Henri the cook" by his cousins.Beaute, Georges; Attems, Mary (1982). A Toulouse-Lautrec Album. Transl. W. Michael Lovett; Mana Derakhshani. Salt Lake City: Gibbs M. Smith, Inc. p. 62. . .
Lautrec's penchant for art and cooking eventually led him to combine the visual and culinary arts, usually as a formal celebration of the release of new artworks, resulting in noteworthy parties for which he designed the menu (which were often artworks in themselves), bought and prepared the food, and created new cocktails. Lautrec's most famous party, held at the Natansons' Paris house in February 1895, is often regarded as one of the most notorious parties in art history. Three hundred guests were invited, with a claimed 2,000 cocktails served, all accompanied by side dishes of gourmet food, with Lautrec working diligently as the sole chef and bartender, dressed in a white linen jacket, complete with a freshly shaved bald head and no beard. Ironically, by the end of the night, Lautrec appeared to be the only one still awake and sober.O'Connor, Patrick (1991). Toulouse-Lautrec: The Nightlife of Paris. Phaidon. p. 9. .
Lautrec was part of a group of gourmands, initially formed by Gustave Geffroy (1855–1926), the historian of the Impressionists, and Claude Monet, who met up every Friday night for dinner at Drouant, a restaurant in the Palais Garnier neighbourhood.Mack, Gerstle (1953). Toulouse-Lautrec. New York: A.A. Knopf. pp. 158-159. .
Joyant, Maurice (1930). La Cuisine de Monsieur Momo, Célibataire. Editions Pellet. .