Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri^[2] Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa was born at the Château du Bosc, Camjac, Aveyron, in the south of France, the firstborn child of Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Montfa (1838–1913)^[3] and Adèle Zoë Tapié de Celeyran (1841–1930).^[4] He was a member of an aristocratic family (descended from both the Counts of Toulouse and Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, as well as the Viscounts of Montfa). His younger brother was born in 1867 but died the following year. Both sons enjoyed the titres de courtoisie of Comte.^[5] If Toulouse-Lautrec had outlived his father, he would have inherited the family title of Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec.^[6]

After the death of his brother, Toulouse-Lautrec's parents separated, and a nanny cared for him.^[7] At the age of eight, Toulouse-Lautrec lived with his mother in Paris, where he drew sketches and caricatures in his exercise workbooks. A friend of his father, René Princeteau, sometimes visited to give informal lessons. Some of Toulouse-Lautrec's early paintings are of horses, a speciality of Princeteau's and a subject Toulouse-Lautrec later revisited in his "Circus Paintings".^[7][8]

In 1875, Toulouse-Lautrec returned to Albi because his mother had concerns about his health. He took thermal baths at Amélie-les-Bains, and his mother consulted doctors in the hope of finding a way to improve her son's growth and development.^[7]

Disability and health problems

Toulouse-Lautrec's parents were first cousins (their mothers were sisters),^[9] and his congenital health conditions have often been attributed to a family history of inbreeding.^[10]

At the age of 13, Toulouse-Lautrec fractured his right femur, and at age 14, he fractured his left femur.^[11] The breaks did not heal properly. Modern physicians attribute this to an unknown genetic disorder, possibly pycnodysostosis (sometimes known as Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome),^[12][13] or a variant disorder along the lines of osteopetrosis, achondroplasia, or osteogenesis imperfecta.^[14] Toulouse-Lautrec's legs ceased to grow when he reached 1.52 m or 5 ft 0 in.^[15] He developed an adult torso while retaining his child-sized legs.^[16]

During a stay in Nice, France, his progress in painting and drawing impressed Princeteau, who persuaded Toulouse-Lautrec's parents to allow him to return to Paris and study under the portrait painter Léon Bonnat. He returned to Paris in 1882.^[18] Toulouse-Lautrec's mother had high ambitions and, with the aim of her son becoming a fashionable and respected painter, used their family's influence to gain him entry to Bonnat's studio.^[7] He was drawn to Montmartre, the area of Paris known for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. Studying with Bonnat placed Toulouse-Lautrec in the heart of Montmartre, an area he rarely left over the next 20 years.

After Bonnat took a new job, Toulouse-Lautrec moved to the studio of Fernand Cormon in 1882 and studied for a further five years and established the group of friends he kept for the rest of his life. At this time, he met Émile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh. Cormon, whose instruction was more relaxed than Bonnat's, allowed his pupils to roam Paris, looking for subjects to paint. During this period, Toulouse-Lautrec had his first encounter with a prostitute (reputedly sponsored by his friends), which led him to paint his first painting of a prostitute in Montmartre, a woman rumoured to be Marie-Charlet.^[7]

Toulouse-Lautrec's family were Anglophiles,^[31] and though he was not as fluent as he pretended to be, he spoke English well enough.^[28] He travelled to London, where he was commissioned by the J. & E. Bella company to make a poster advertising their paper confetti (plaster confetti was banned after the 1892 Mardi Gras)^[32][33] and the bicycle advert La Chaîne Simpson.^[34]

While in London, Toulouse-Lautrec met and befriended Oscar Wilde.^[28] When Wilde faced imprisonment in Britain, Toulouse-Lautrec became a very vocal supporter of him, and his portrait of Oscar Wilde was painted the same year as Wilde's trial.^[28][35]

Toulouse-Lautrec was mocked for his short stature and physical appearance, which some biographers have conjectured may have contributed to his abuse of alcohol.^[36]

Toulouse-Lautrec initially drank only beer and wine, but his tastes expanded into spirits, namely absinthe.^[24] The "Earthquake Cocktail" (Tremblement de Terre) is attributed to Toulouse-Lautrec: a potent mixture containing half absinthe and half cognac in a wine goblet.^[37] Because of his underdeveloped legs, he walked with the aid of a cane, which he hollowed out and kept filled with liquor in order to ensure that he was never without alcohol.^[28][38]

Like Claude Monet, Lautrec was known for his cooking. Culinary historian Alexandra Leaf highlights Monet and Lautrec as the two "most serious gourmets" among their peers. Lautrec's love for cooking stemmed from his family upbringing and early childhood where he first learned the importance of culinary values.^[39] Before he became widely known as a painter, he was called "Henri the cook" by his cousins.^[40]

Lautrec's penchant for art and cooking eventually led him to combine the visual and culinary arts, usually as a formal celebration of the release of new artworks, resulting in legendary parties for which he designed the menu (which were often artworks in themselves), bought and prepared the food, and created and often invented entirely new cocktails. Lautrec's most famous party, held at the Natansons' Paris house in February 1895, is often regarded as one of the most notorious parties in art history. 300 guests were invited, with a claimed 2,000 cocktails served, all accompanied by side dishes of gourmet food, with Lautrec working diligently as the sole chef and bartender, dressed in a white linen jacket, complete with a freshly shaved bald head and no beard. Ironically, by the end of the night, Lautrec appeared to be the only one still awake and sober.^[41][39]

Lautrec was part of a group of gourmands, initially formed by Gustave Geffroy (1855–1926), the historian of the Impressionists, and Claude Monet, who met up every Friday night for dinner at Drouant, a restaurant in the Palais Garnier neighborhood.^[42] After Lautrec's death, his close friend Maurice Joyant published Lautrec's collection of recipes – some original, some adapted – in the book La Cuisine de Monsieur Momo, Célibataire (1930), along with a color book frontispiece of Toulouse Lautrec Cooking by Vuillard.^[42][43] It was revised in 1966 as L'art de la cuisine. The cookbook features 150 recipes, many of which were Lautrec's signature dishes, such as "Catalan salad". Art historian Charles Stuckey describes it as the first cookbook ever published by an artist, albeit posthumously.^[44] An English translation, entitled The Art of Cuisine was published in 1966.^[45]

By February 1899, Toulouse-Lautrec's alcoholism began to take its toll, and he collapsed from exhaustion. His family had him committed to Folie Saint-James, a sanatorium in Neuilly-sur-Seine for three months.^[46] While committed, he drew 39 circus portraits. After his release, he returned to the Paris studio and travelled throughout France.^[47] Both his physical and mental health began to decline due to alcoholism and syphilis.^[48]

On 9 September 1901, at the age of 36, Toulouse-Lautrec died from complications due to alcoholism and syphilis at his mother's estate, Château Malromé, in Saint-André-du-Bois. He is buried in Cimetière de Verdelais, Gironde, a few kilometres from the estate.^[48][49] Toulouse-Lautrec's last words reportedly were "Le vieux con!" ("The old fool!"), his goodbye to his father.^[28]

After Toulouse-Lautrec's death, his mother, Comtesse Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, and his art dealer, Maurice Joyant, continued promoting his artwork. His mother contributed funds for a museum to be created in Albi, his birthplace, to show his works. This Musée Toulouse-Lautrec owns the most extensive collection of his works.

In a career of less than 20 years, Toulouse-Lautrec created:

• 737 paintings on canvas
• 275 watercolours
• 363 prints and posters
• 5,084 drawings
• some ceramic and stained-glass work
• an unknown (80+)^[50] number of lost works^[13]

Toulouse-Lautrec's debt to the Impressionists, particularly the more figurative painters like Manet and Degas, is apparent, that within his works, one can draw parallels to the detached barmaid at A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Manet and the behind-the-scenes ballet dancers of Degas. Toulouse-Lautrec's style was also influenced by the Ukiyo-e genre of Japanese woodblock prints, which became popular in the Parisian art world.^[51]

Toulouse-Lautrec excelled at depicting people in their working environments, with the colour and movement of the gaudy nightlife present but the glamour stripped away. He was a master at painting crowd scenes where each figure was highly individualised. At the time they were painted, the individual figures in his larger paintings could be identified by silhouette alone, and the names of many of these characters have been recorded.^{[citation needed]} His treatment of his subject matter, whether as portraits, in scenes of Parisian nightlife, or as intimate studies, has been described as alternately "sympathetic" and "dispassionate".^{[citation needed]}

Toulouse-Lautrec's skilled depiction of people relied on his highly linear approach emphasising contours. He often applied paint in long, thin brushstrokes leaving much of the board visible. Many of his works may be best described as "drawings in coloured paint."^[52]

On 20 August 2018, Toulouse-Lautrec was the featured artist on the BBC television programme Fake or Fortune?. Researchers attempted to discover whether he had created two newly discovered sketchbooks.^[53]

See also Category:Paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

• Art Nouveau posters and graphic arts
• Salon des Cent
• Les Maîtres de l'Affiche