(1864-1901)

See also: Juxtapositions: Toulouse-Lautrec's "Aristide Bruant"; Art Nouveau

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born on November 24, 1864, in southern France. Son and heir of Comte Alphonse-Charles de Toulouse, he was the last in the line of an aristocratic family that dated back a thousand years. Today, the family estate houses the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec. As a child, Henri was weak and often sick. But by the time he was ten years old he had begun to draw and paint. 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. Deprived of the physical life that a normal body would have permitted, Toulouse-Lautrec lived completely for his art. He dwelt in the Montmartre section of Paris, the center of the cabaret entertainment and bohemian life that he loved to depict in his work. Dance halls and nightclubs, racetracks, prostitutes - all these were memorialized on canvas or made into lithographs. 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. By the 1890s the drinking was affecting his health. He was confined first to a sanatorium and then to his mother's care at home, but he could not stay away from alcohol. Toulouse-Lautrec died on September 9, 1901, at the family chateau of Malrome. Further reading on Toulouse-Lautrec: Toulouse-Lautrec: The Soul of Montmartre (excellent series, both text and images) Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life (best biography) Great Lithographs by Toulouse-Lautrec: 89 Plates, Including 8 in Full Color Henri De Toulouse Lautrec (Cooper) Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec (Art Series) Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) Buy Toulouse-Lautrec POSTERS online Click here! Buy Toulouse-Lautrec CALENDARS online Click here! Buy Toulouse-Lautrec OIL REPRODUCTIONS online Click here!   Toulouse-Lautrec Images 1886-87 "A Montrouge" - Rosa La Rouge 1891 Moulin Rouge: La Goulue (lithograph) c. 1891 Justine Dieuhl 1892 Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant 1892 At the Moulin Rouge: Two Women Waltzing 1892 La Goulue Arriving at the Moulin Rouge with Two Women 1894 Rue des Moulins: The Medical Inspection 1894 The Two Girlfriends 1894 Two Half-Naked Women Seen from behind in the Rue des Moulins Brothel 1894 Woman Pulling up her Stocking 1894 Yvette Guilbert Greeting the Audience 1896 Alone 1896 The Toilette [Art Posters] [Home] [Juxtapositions] [Galleries] [Theory and Criticism] [Art CD-ROM Reviews] [Artchive] [Links]