The “Toulouse-Lautrec Resolutely Modern” exhibition at Paris’ Grand Palais revisits the work of this popular post-impressionist painter world-renowned for his studies of life in Montmartre (to January 27, 2020). His cabaret nightlife paintings are indelibly linked in the public imagination with Belle Epoque Paris.
When the Moulin Rouge cabaret opened in 1889, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters. The cabaret reserved a seat for him and displayed his paintings. Among the well-known works that he painted for the Moulin Rouge and other Parisian nightclubs are depictions of the singer Yvette Guilbert; the dancer Louise Weber, better known as La Goulue (The Glutton) who created the French can-can and the dancer Jane Avril
The retrospective exhibition not only displays the artist’s famed Montmartre inspired work, but also other lesser known paintings and drawings from both early and late in his short, but prolific career. He died at 36 leaving behind 700 canvas paintings, 350 prints and posters and 5,000 drawings. The exhibition includes about 200 of these works.
Even more of the artist’s work (1000 paintings, drawings and posters) is displayed year around at the Toulouse -Lautrec Museum, in Albi (his birth place) located near Toulouse in the south of France. The work was donated by the artist’s mother shortly after his death in 1901.
“Toulouse-Lautrec Resolutely Modern” to January 27, 2020, Grand Palais, Paris.