Artbrain!

society and culture

Nov 24, 1864 - Sept 9, 1901
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter.

Toulouse-Lautrec was born in Albi, Tarn in the Midi-Pyrénées Region of France. From an old aristocratic family that had lost much of its prestige, he was the son of Comte Alphonse and Comtesse Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec. At age twelve Henri 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 would become an important post-impressionist painter, art nouveau illustrator, and lithographer, recording the Bohemian lifestyle of Paris at the end of the 19th century. For his work, he has been called the soul of Montmartre, where he made his home. His paintings portray life at the Moulin Rouge and other Montmartre and Parisian cabarets and theaters, and in the brothels that he frequented regularly. Two famous people occurring in his paintings was Louise Weber, known as the outrageous La Goulue, the dancer who created the "French Can-Can" and the singer, Yvette Guilbert.

He taught painting to Suzanne Valadon, one of his models, and encouraged her efforts. He was a severe alcoholic for practically his whole life and shortly before his death he was institutionalized for it.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec contracted syphilis, possibly from a prostitute whom he painted many times, Rosa La Rouge, and it eventually killed him. He died at his estate in Malromé and is buried in Verdelais, Gironde, a few miles from his birthplace.

Today, a painting by him can sell for as much as US$ 14.5 million.

Some of his important works:

Alone
Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant
At the Moulin Rouge: Two Women Waltzing
La Goulue Arriving at the Moulin Rouge with Two Women
Justine Dieuhl
The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon), 1887-1889
Marcelle Lender dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric."
"A Montrouge" - Rosa La Rouge
Moulin Rouge: La Goulue (Louise Weber)
Rue des Moulins: The Medical Inspection
The Toilette
The Two Girlfriends
Two Half-Naked Women Seen from behind in the Rue des Moulins Brothel
Woman Pulling up her Stocking
Yvette Guilbert Greeting the Audience
May Belfort singing Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me a Bow-wow
La Chaine Simpson

The world's most famous midget

Everyone knows of this Henri, and most people love him - knowing him only through his paintings and Baz Lurhman's Moulin Rouge.

The paintings are an exciting whirl of colour and emotion, the view of an outider who can never be taken on equal terms, yet is accepted because of his francs.

An exciting painter and sketcher who worked for the moment as he lived his life and had a beautiful line that expressed perfectly where he found his life had led.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lautrec".