1864 -1901 · Albi, Paris and Montmartre

Nervous line, daring framing and a non-judgmental look at Montmartre make Toulouse-Lautrec the great visual chronicler of the Belle Époque.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born in Albi in 1864 into an aristocratic family. Two leg fractures during adolescence, aggravated by a hereditary bone disease, interrupted his growth and strengthened his commitment to drawing. Installed in Paris in 1882, he studied with Léon Bonnat then Fernand Cormon, where he met Vincent van Gogh in particular. Lautrec quickly moved away from academic teaching to observe café-concerts, cabarets, circuses, theaters and brothels. In Montmartre, he became a regular at the Moulin-Rouge, the Mirliton and the Japanese Divan. He does not look at this world from the outside: dancers, singers, waitresses, clients and sex workers are his acquaintances, sometimes his friends. His line simplifies the silhouette without erasing the individual. Japanese prints teach him flatness, emptiness and cut framing; Degas nourishes his plunging views and his intimate scenes. In 1891, the Moulin Rouge poster: La Goulue immediately made him famous. Jane Avril in turn becomes an icon of movement, identifiable by her sinuous silhouette. The Goulue entering the Moulin-Rouge shows the artist behind the show, attentive to the passage and personality. The Goulue entering the Moulin-Rouge shows the artist behind the show, attentive to the passage and personality. The Goulue entering the Moulin-Rouge shows the artist behind the show, attentive to the passage and the personality. The Portrait of Vincent van Gogh captures his friend in profile in the colorful vibration of a café. The Toilet and the lithographic suite They describe the private lives of women with a franchise devoid of heroic voyeurism. Painter, designer, lithographer, illustrator and poster designer, Lautrec abolished the hierarchy between fine arts and urban communication. Alcoholism and illness, however, exhausted his health. He died at the Malromé family estate in 1901, at the age of thirty-six, leaving an immense body of work which still gives a face to Paris today around 1890. The "Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec" selection notably pits Jane Avril against Jane today and La Goulue entering the Moulin-Rouge. His reading favors color.

Toulouse-Lautrec does not paint Montmartre as a festive setting: he knows its bodies, fatigue, professional gestures and personalities, which a single line is often enough to make unforgettable.