This morning, sitting here in Celestun with my coffee, Google alerted me to the fact that today would be Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s 150th birthday, had
the bohemian artist not died in his 30s. The French artist, who is best known for his
painted scenes of wild, bohemian Parisian nightlife, including his posters for
the opening of the Moulin Rouge. I shot
this photo of the famous Moulin Rouge while in Paris last year.
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| The Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris |
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November
1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman and
illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in
the late 1800s yielded a collection of exciting, elegant and provocative images
of the modern and sometimes decadent life of those times. Toulouse-Lautrec –
along with Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin – is among the most well-known
painters of the Post-Impressionist period.
At age twelve Toulouse-Lautrec broke his left leg and at
fourteen his right leg. The bones did not heal properly, and his legs ceased to
grow. He reached maturity with a body trunk of normal size but with abnormally
short legs. He was only 4 1/2 feet (1.5 meters) tall.
Toulouse-Lautrec was drawn to Montmartre, the area of Paris
famous for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and
philosophers. When the Moulin Rouge
cabaret opened, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of
posters. Other artists looked down on the work, but Henri was so aristocratic
he did not care. The cabaret reserved a seat for him and displayed his
paintings.
Toulouse-Lautrec was very much an active part of this
community. He would sit at a crowded nightclub table, laughing and drinking,
meanwhile making swift sketches. The next morning in his studio he would expand
the sketches into brightly colored paintings. In order to join in the
Montmartre life - as well as to fortify himself against the crowd's ridicule of
his appearance - Toulouse-Lautrec began to drink heavily.
Throughout his career, which spanned less than 20 years,
Toulouse-Lautrec created 737 canvases, 275 watercolours, 363 prints and posters,
5,084 drawings, some ceramic and stained glass work, and an unknown number of
lost works.
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| Paintings by Henri Mahe decorate the entrance to the Moulin Rouge in Paris |
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| Paintings by Henri Mahe decorate the entrance to the Moulin Rouge in Paris |
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| Paintings by Henri Mahe decorate the entrance to the Moulin Rouge in Paris |
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