Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Image 1
This essay will discuss the life of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the first part, in the second part it will discuss how he influenced modern poster art and then my opinions about his style.

Toulouse-Lautrec was born into rich family in southern France on November 24, 1864. Henri's childhood wasn't very lucky. Like Whitten (2003) says at age twelve, Henri broke his left leg and at age fourteen, he broke his right leg. On the other hand it had impact upon his artist spirit, as Guimón (2006, p.125) pointed Lautrec remarked that if his legs had been longer he would never had painted anything. He lived in Montmartre, which was the cabaret centre. He was surrounded by night clubs, brothels, racetracks, prostitutes, and it caused that these things became his main topics for paintings and posters. For people his appearance was ridiculous, in addition they begun to call him ''coffee pot'' like the film (Toulouse-Lautrec: The Full Story, 2006) says. So his appearance was reason why he begun to drink. By the time drinking was affecting his health and he died on September 9,1901.

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Bouret (1964, cover) asserts that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is one of the most extraordinary figueras in the history of French art in the nineteenth century. The importance of Lautrec is for instance in the field of modern litography likewise SDGLN Staff (2010) is pointing out. In addition his singularity arise from his appearance and then from his contribution to the development of advertising. He laid the foundations for modern poster. Like Mayor (1951, p.89) pointing out he jumped to fame when his huge lithographs appeared on every billboard to startle Paris with their simplified colors and calculated design. Lautrec discovered techniques that are still using nowadays. His posters had good readibility, they also got peoples attention in the right time. What I appreciate on his posters is the clealiness and contrast. If I should pointed one of them I would pick his La Goulue (image 2) which shows exactly these principles.

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Lautrec used very similar flat vivid colours over and over again. As Mayor (1951, p.89) says about it when his posters first flared their yellows and oranges and blacks in the gaslights, they must have impressed themselves unforgettably, for nothing like them had ever decorated any street before. If we focus on the composition of this poster, I would pick three interesting elements here. We can see the title Moulin Rouge which is in red colour to distinguish from the rest of the poster, then the white area in the middle, which makes constrast with the black outline of the public. The outlines is the element which he took over from Japanese prints which came to Paris and made a huge impact on local artist (Pixelandframes, 2007). Likewise Kelly (no date) points out Lautrec needed a style that was quick to apply, so he didn't take care a lot about the details. He adapted a lot of other elements, such as creating a linear rhythm and playing with curves contrasting with angles.

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The other style he used was adapted by Degas. Although these two artists have a lot in common, they were different as well. Article by Rayme (2007) disputed the theory that they were both interested in capturing the movement and importance of line in their works. Especially from his earlier works we can see that he was fascinated by portrait painting, interested solely in faces, bodies and their movement as Bouret (1964, p.103) says. And the movement is the reason, which makes him post-impressionist or artist of Art-Noveau. As an example od movement I would pick Lautrec's artwork Jane Avril Iii (image 3) or Equestrienne (image 4).

Nowadays there are a lot people who call themselves ''designers''. But as you can see the posters that are created by them don't have such a good quality. The main principles such as balance, contrast, harmony, dominance or unity are not kept any more. If these ''designers'' knew Lutrec's artworks and his studies, the art of posters would be more intelligible to audience and more artistically valuable.





 
Life of Henry Toulouse-Lautrec, 2007

References:

Johnson, E., Whitten, C. (2003) Biography of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Available at: http://www.lautrec.info/biography.html (Accessed: 23 February 2011).

Bouret, J. (1964) Toulouse-Lautrec 128 Plates 64 in colour. London: Thames and Hudson.

Guimón, José (2006) Art and Madness. Ebrary [Online]. Available at: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/pcollege/docDetail.action?docID=10124855&p00=lautrec (Accessed: 23 February 2011).

SDGLN Staff (2010) Toulouse-Lautrec’s Paris: Stroll the streets of the "City of Light" [Online]. Available at: http://sdgln.com/entertainment/2010/07/01/75-exhibition-toulouse-lautrec-s-paris-stroll-streets-city-light (Accessed: 23 February 2011).

Kelly, J. (no date) The painter Toulose Lautrec [Online]. Available at: http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Painter---Toulouse---Lautrec (Accesed: 23 February 2011).

Rayme, M. (2007) Two French artist paint dancers [Online]. Available at: http://www.suite101.com/content/two-french-artists-paint-dancers-a18818 (Accesed: 23 February 2011).

Mayor, H. A. (1951) 'Toulouse-Lautrec' The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. 10(3), pp. 89-95


List of visuals:
  • Images:
Image 1: Lautrec, H. (1880) Self-Portrait [Online]. Available at: http://www.mystudios.com/art/post/lautrec/lautrec-self-portrait.jpg (Accessed: 23 February 2011).

Image 2: Lautrec, H. (1891) La Goulue [Online]. Available at: http://www.leboudoirdumarais.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/3-Lautrec_moulin_rouge_la_goulue_poster_1891.jpg (Accessed: 23 February 2011).

Image 3: Lautrec, H. (1893) Jane Avril Iii [Online]. Available at: http://www.toulouse-lautrec-foundation.org/Jane-Avril-Iii.jpg (Accessed: 23 February 2011).

Image 4: Lautrec, H. (1888) At the Cirque Fernando: Equestrienne [Online]. Available at: http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/262/PreviewComp/SuperStock_262-2014.jpg (Accessed: 23 February 2011).

  • Videos:
Toulouse-Lautrec: The Full Story (2006) Directed by Waldemar Januzczak [Film]. United Kingdom: ZCZ Films.

Pixelandframes (2007) Life of Henry Toulouse-Lautrec. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp2kZeX5Sd4 (Accessed: 23 February 2011).


Research:
  • 1864 - 1901
  • French painter, printmaker, illustrator
  • Post-impressionism, Art-Noveau
  • Health problems - legs
  • Jane Avril - his most famous model
  • His best artworks started in 1888
  • Some of his techniques he took over from Jeana-François Raffaëlli
  • Influenced by the classical Japanese woodprints
  • In many of his works he used thin brushstrokes
  • Colourful pictures
  • His admirer was even Pablo Picasso
  • Alcoholism - death

Artist, aristocrat, and colorful chronicler of the Belle Époque, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) was one of the greatest artists of the late nineteenth century. For the first time in 20 years, more than 100 works by Toulouse-Lautrec will be shown together at The San Diego Museum of Art.

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. 

He has become famous as the bohemian artist of the Moulin Rouge. He captured the spirit and emotion of the belle époque, the "beautiful era" in Paris, through his posters and prints. This Web site is devoted to his life and work.
http://www.lautrec.info/

In spite of the popular legend that Lautrec remained a midget, he did in fact grow to over five feet tall. It was his large head and ill-proportioned body which made him appear dwarfish. Added to this, his thick lips' bulbous nose and short-sighted eyes meant that the charming "Little Jewel" as he had been called as a child, had grown into an ugly cripple. His self-portraits and letters indicate that this is exactly how he saw himself.
Apart from the traumatic accidents, Lautrec's early years were relatively uneventful. Much of his childhood was spent at the Chateau du Bosc, home of his grandfather, the so-called Black Prince. His cousins provided company, and the days were spent playing croquet and badminton, collecting toy horses-and-coaches (Lautrec's childhood passion), and learning Latin and English. 

His stunted physique earned him laughs and scorn, and kept him from experiencing many of the physical pleasures offered in Montmartre, a sorrow that he drowned in alcohol. At first it was beer and wine. Then brandy, whiskey, and the infamous absinthe found their ways into his life. Art and alcohol were his only mistresses, and they were mistresses to which he devoted all of his time and energy. He was doing one or both almost every day of his life until he died.



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