Toulouse-Lautrec
immortalized the night-life of Paris in the 'naughty nineties'. During the
first part of the decade, he was at his peak both as poster artist and painter.
Towards the end, his superb technical ability declined along with his health.
At the
Circus Fernando was Lautrec's first important painting. He painted the circus
and his favourite clown Cha-u-kao many times, but his most constant source of
inspiration was the Montmartre dance-hall The Moulin Rouge.
The
poster of the dancer Jane Avril is probably the artist's best-known image. She
and the other Moulin Rouge performers particularly the lascivious La Goulue
appear over and over again in his paintings.
Even
when he was not painting the Moulin Rouge characters, Lautrec always depicted the
people he knew. The poster of Aristide Bruant advertises his friend's
appearance at the Ambassadeurs club. And The Salon at the Rue Des Moulins
depicts the prostitutes in his favourite brothel.
An
early example of Lautrec's forceful caricature and strong graphic style shows
the ringmaster and a bare-back rider at a famous Montmartre circus. The
ringmaster, with his exaggerated features and silhouetted suit tails, looks
almost as if he has been cut out and stuck on to the flattened circus ring. The
painting was hung in the Moulin Rouge from the club's opening night.
One of
Lautrec's most famous posters shows Lautrec's favourite dancer Jane Avril doing
her particular version of the 'quadrille Naturaliste' a form of cancan at the
Jardin de Paris, the club where she worked after the Moulin Rouge. In the
bottom right corner, the convoluted silhouette of a double-bass forms part of
the 'frame'.
The satirical cabaret
singer Aristide Bruant, with his distinctive hat, scarf and stick, scowls
threateningly, while the silhouette of a man leaning in the doorway evokes a
sleazy club atmosphere. The manager of the Ambassadeurs club was outraged, and
refused to use the poster until Bruant threatened to cancel his appearance.
With
her dress slashed to the waist and her disdainful features distorted by the
artificial light, Louise Weber La Goulue makes her entrance on the arm of her
sister Wine Frontage ('cheese tart') and another woman. The twist of Moine
Frontage's face is cut off violently by the edge of the picture.
A scene
in the night-club bar is framed by the diagonal brown balustrade and a
dramatically cropped close-up of a woman her face bright green in the
night-club's spotlights. Lautrec himself appears in the background, dwarfed by
his tall cousin, while La Goulue and Mime Frontage stand in front of the
mirror.
In the
foyer of a high-class brothel, a heavily decorated interior with plush red
seats, prostitutes and their madame (sitting prim and stiff on the right) wait
for customers. The artist often stayed in this brothel and he gives his models an air of dignity,
despite the hint of comedy in the caricatures.
Cha-u-kao
became one of Lautrec's favourite performers in the mid-1890s. In this
painting, she is shown removing her bright yellow ruff, apparently alone. But
in fact as the artist cleverly indicates by the reflection in the corner of the
mirror, and the glass and plate she is in a supper-room with an elderly
gentleman.
Writer
– Marshall Cavendish
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