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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (24, November 1864 – 9, September 1901)
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"In
our time there are many artists who do something because
it is new... They see their value and their justification
in this newness. They are deceiving themselves...Novelty
is seldom the essential. This has to do with one thing
only... making a subject better from its intrinsic nature."
-Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec |
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An artists, printmaker,
draftsman, and illustrator, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
was born French and is perhaps best known for capturing
the debauched and theatrical life of ‘fin de siècle’
Paris that resulted in an oeuvre of provocative images
of the bohemian nightlife. |
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The paintings of Henri Toulouse
Lautrec are a mirror to the decadent and high society
lifestyle of the Parisians in early 20th century. Henri
observed and documented, with great psychological insight,
various interesting facets of the Parisian world of
entertainment and nightlife in the 1890s.Toulouse
Lautrec used a free flowing and expressive style
of painting often resulted in highly lilting compositions
such as ‘In the Circus Fernando: The Ringmaster’
(1888). This painting simply outlines the movements
of the subjects yet evokes a long lasting impression
of the artist’s |
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mastery over his medium Moreover,
Henri’s use of color in large areas make his posters
stand out as powerful works of art.
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Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, born
in Albi, in the Midi-Pyrénées Region of
France was the firstborn child of Comte Alphonse and
Comtesse Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec. Of aristocratic
bearing, as a young child Toulouse-Lautrec
suffered from a number of congenital health conditions
as a result of the tradition of marrying within family.
Still young and growing, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
fractured his left and right thighbones at the age of
13 and 14 respectively.This resulted in stunted growth
with his height remained at 4’6” only. However,
Toulouse-Lautrec developed an adult sized torso
with child-sized legs.
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Toulouse-Lautrec,
who has begun to draw and paint by the age of 10, immersed
himself wholly into his art since he was deprived of
the normal life of an adult male. Henri resided in the
Montmartre district of Paris, popularly known as the
‘center for cabaret and bohemian lifestyle’,
and began to paint scenes of everyday life. His subjects
for paintings or lithographs included dance halls, nightclubs,
circuses, and racetracks. The denizens nicknamed Henri
Toulouse-Lautrec as ‘The Soul of Montmartre’
as a mark of respect to his art that recorded life of
the entertainment district. Toulouse-Lautrec
painted life at the Moulin Rouge, and other cabarets,
theatres and brothels, which he visited on a regular
basis. It’s assumed that Henri may have contracted
syphilis as a result of his frequent visits to these
brothels |
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Toulouse-Lautrec captured
his impressions of these places and their well-known
personalities in portraits that are strikingly original
and powerful in appeal. Some of his best works are 'La
Goulou Entering the Moulin Rouge' (1892), 'Jane Avril
Entering the Moulin Rouge' (1892) and 'Au salon de la
rue des Moulins' (1894).
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Toulouse-Lautrec, many of
whose works are kept in the museum bearing his name
in Albi, was a prolific artist. His oeuvre is multi-dimensional
including great numbers of paintings, sketches, etchings,
lithographs, and posters, as well as illustrations for
various contemporary newspapers. He also employed elements
of styles of many of his contemporaries in his personal
and highly evolved style. Japanese art that was becoming
a vogue in Paris also influenced his work. The works
of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec are striking due
to the use of sharp delineation, asymmetric compositions,
oblique angles, and chunks of flat areas of color. His
work is known to have inspired Van Gogh, Georges Seurat,
and Georges Rouault.
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| Toulouse-Lautrec alcoholic dependence eventually
brought on a paralytic stroke that led to his demise
at one of his family’s estates at Malromé.
Since Toulouse-Lautrec death, the 'Moulin Rouge'
groups of paintings and other poster have seen a high
demand in the art market and sell for high prices at
auctions.
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| "I paint things as they are. I don't
comment. I record". |
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