Henry de Toulouse, was also known as Toulouse-Lautrec was among the best known French painting artists in the 19th century. He was born on 24 November in the year 1864 in Alba, located in France. He was brought up in an noble family of four, his father, Comnte Alphonse Charles de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa and Adele Zoe Tapie de Celeyran, his mother together with his younger brother who unfortunately died in early childhood. The demise of his young brother devastated his parents and terminated their marriage(Taschen, 1993.). The parents of Henry de Toulouse were first cousins which made him suffer various congenital health issues believed to be caused by inbreeding. His mother tried to seek for medication for his health conditions but she did not succeed full. That however did not deter her from supporting her beloved son.
When he was 13 and of age, he was involved in an accident and developed a fracture on his left thigh bone and later in the following year, he developed another fracture on his right leg. These accidents stopped growth in all his legs while the rest of the body kept on growing normally. As a result of this poor health conditions, he remained restricted in his home and decided to major in painting. However, his painting was gifted by nature and even became used to painting horses in his young age. His talent was discovered by Rene Princeteau, his dad’s friend, who advised his parents to boost him in his artistic dreams. After finishing his college studies, Henry went to study art under the admired portrait painter Leon Bonnat. This is the time frame that he gained experience in the Montmartre area of Paris which was well known for its bohemian way of life (“. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019).
In the year 1882, he went to the Fernand Cormon art studio where he increased his studies for five years. This is where he became more advanced and also met other painters like Vincent van Gogh and Emile Bernard. In this period he became more interested in painting prostitutes and their lifestyle. After completing studies in 1887, Toulouse-Lautrec took part in exposition of Toulouse and later on displayed with Van Gogh and Louis Anquetin in Paris. Later on in year 1889, he frequently took part in the Salon of the independent artists (“. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019).. In companion with other inventive artists like Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cezanne, he played a major role bringing up the independent salon whose purpose was to allow artists to exhibit their works to the open judgment with wide-ranging freedom.
In the year 1889, Toulouse-Lautrec was hired to produce a variety of posters in a newly opened Moulin Rouge Cabaret. However, several artists did not support his work but he wasn’t up to social endorsement, he appreciated his own work and went ahead to produce the paintings for the cabaret. The several paintings that he made in this period include La Goulue arriving at the Moulin Rouge (1890), Salon at the Rue des Moulins (1894). The medical Inspection at the Rue des Moulins Brothel and The clown Cha-U-Kao at the Moulin Rouge (1895).
. Lautrec’s culinary skills were perfect and he compiled his favorite recipes. His appearance made people make fun of him, which resulted into him becoming a drunkard. With time he became addicted to alcohol and went everywhere with it. He then contracted syphilis from one of the prostitutes believed to be Rosa La Rouge who was also in a number of his paintings. In 1899, alcohol affected his physical and mental well-fare and his family members decided to have him admitted at Folie Saint-James. Later on in September 1901, at the age of 36, Toulouse-Lautrec passed away at his mother’s beloved estate Chateau Malrome and is buried in Cimetiere de Verdelais.
Toulouse-Lautrec began his paintings at a tender age of ten because his own family; his granddad, father and uncle were all gifted architects. The unfortunate accidents that cost his left then right thigh bones required a lot of time and care for recuperation and they helped boost his painting skills (Taschen, 1993). He could not do many things boys of his age were capable of and he engrossed himself in art. Princeteau convinced Toulouse-Lautrec’s parents to let him go back to Paris and get educated under Leon Bonnat, the portrayal painter. Bonnat taking a new job made Toulouse-Lautrec move to Fernand Cormon’s studio in 1882 and here he met Emile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh and he allowed pupils roam Paris looking for subjects to paint. He had his first indulgence with a whore and this motivated him to create his first painting of a prostitute in Montmartre.
In 1884 Toulouse-Lautrec met Aristide Bruant, a singer with his own floorshow called the Mirliton, who was impressed by his work and asked him to make illustrations for his songs and let Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit his works in the Mirliton. Toulouse-Lautrec grew famous in Montmartre by duplicates of his drawings in Bruant’s magazine Mirliton and started earning commissions. He later exhibited with Van Gogh and Louis Anquetin in Paris in 1887. He met Suzanne Valadon whom he made several portraits of.
Octave Maus, the Belgian critic invited Toulouse-Lautrec to present at the Twenties display in Brussels in February 1888. Theo, Van Gogh’s brother purchased Poudre de Riz for 150 francs for the Groupil & Cie gallery (Alan Curtis,2019). He took part in the Salon des Independants from 1889-1894 and made numerous landscapes of Montmartre. He painted a series of pleasant en plein air paintings of the red haired Carmen Gaudin who appears in The Laundress (1888). Toulouse-Lautrec’s authenticity motivated him to do the Elles, done in 1896, showing the brothel life. He spent a lot of time studying the prostitutes and he said that he found a kinship between his appearance and the moral destitution of the prostitutes. The prostitutes inspired Toulouse-Lautrec and he had almost fifty paintings and one hundred drawings, concerned with the life of these women. He created a series Le Lit in 1892 and 1893, of two women kissing and Salon de la Rue des Moulins in 1894, showing ladies’ loneliness.
The Moulin Rouge floorshow opening in 1889, Lautrec was contracted to make a series of posters which other artists looked down upon but he ignored them and continued to exhibit his paintings. He not only painted for the Moulin Rouge but he also depicted the singer Yvette Guilbert, Louise Weber the dancer, better known as La Goulue and dancer Jane Avril.
Toulouse-Lautrec with Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin are among the best artistes of the Post-Impressionist period with Lautrec’s works observing the personalities of Parisian entertainment and entire French entertainment sector in 1890s. His utmost simplification in outline and movement shows his unique features as a proficient artist who will continue to receive posthumous recognition and praises. His style was influenced greatly by Japanese Woodprints and was a legend at painting crowd scenes with unique features highly individualized. His style of art, mostly linear and emphasizing contours played a big role in depicting people. His drawings generally could be termed as drawings in colored paints.
Toulouse-Lautrec created posters for the Moulin Rouge (Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 12.2 (1986): 115-135(. In 1889, the Moulin Rouge was opened for the first time and Toulouse-Lautrec was hired to create the posters for the cabaret. He designed all the poster using the performers as the focal point. He was among the Salon des Independants, and became a frequent contributor to the salons exhibitions(Taschen, 1993). In the modern culture, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s name is still linked Moulin Rouge due to his most iconic work such as Moulin Rouge poster of 1891 (La Goulue), Valentine the Boneless training the New Girls(1890). In addition, He invented a cocktail. From his alcoholic nature, the invention of the Earthquake cocktail is attributed to him, half absinthe and half cognac. He even tunneled his walking stick in order to fill it with alcohol. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec died living 5084 drawings, 363 prints and posters, 275 watercolors and 737 canvased paintings.
Reference
Birnholz, Alan Curtis. “Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec – Legacy”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-de-Toulouse-Lautrec/Legacy.
Arnold, Matthias, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Toulouse-Lautrec. Taschen, 1993.
Maroteaux, Pierre, and Maurice Lamy. “The malady of Toulouse-Lautrec.” Jama 191.9 (1965): 715-717.
Heller, Reinhold, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. “Rediscovering Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s” At the Moulin Rouge”.” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 12.2 (1986): 115-135.
