Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
came from an aristocratic background, having been born the son of an earl. Even
as a schoolboy he showed a talent for drawing. By 14 he had suffered two horse
back riding accidents, combined with a serious bone disease which eventually left
him crippled for life. His body continued to grow but not his legs, he would remain
only five feet tall and suffer pain and embarrassment his entire life.
At the age of 18 Lautrec moved to Montmartre in Paris to study art seriously.
He worked with artists Louis Anquentin,
Emile Bernard, Degas, Van Gogh and others. He became a frequenter of the the cafes,
cabarets and brothels of the neighborhood, drawing from them inspirations for
his artistic themes.
As the artist's stature grew, several
magazines wanted to publish his work, including Le
Rire. His subjects, as well as street life, included some of the most famous
music-hall performers, with whom he became friends, such as Yvette
Guilbert, La Goulue Jane
Avril, May Milton, May
Belfort and several others.
He became absorbed in the night life
of the Montmartre until he himself was an indispensable part of it.
"His
(poster) masterpieces define the limits of poster style: where Cheret
epitomizes a completely external, impersonal viewpoint, Lautrec is the embodiment
of internal, personal vision with a point to make, not, to be sure, a moral judgment,
but rather an amused, wry observation on the passing scene.
Virtually
all posterists, then and since, have had to make their stance somewhere between
these two poles. True, some may have tried a satirical bite more vicious than
Toulouse-Lautrec's, or a neutrality even more profound than Cheret's, but none
could surpass the sheer mastery of the pioneers. The best proof is that a century
later, their work still sparkles with all its force, inventiveness and beauty,
and each in his way is more popular than they ever were in their own lifetimes.
However, the years of night life and excessive intake of absinthe began
to take their toll, and his physical condition became very fragile. He had to
be taken through the Paris World's Fair of 1900 in a wheel-chair, and the following
year he died in his country home.
His legacy in poster art
continues to astound us. Despite the smallness of his output (Cheret
created almost 1000 posters) as compared to the rest of his artistic oeuvre, Toulouse-Lautrec
proved himself a true genius of the poster, and his position in the poster pantheon
has never been seriously challenged" (Wine
Spectator)
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