Pin-Ups

PIN-UPs

TOULOUSE– LAUTREC & THE ART OF CELEBRITY

HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC 1864–1901 A Short Biography

Toulouse-Lautrec is remembered today for his iconic images of Paris’s celebrity élite and his colourful posters of fin-de-siècle Montmartre.

It was the music hall and the cabaret that guaranteed his own fame and fortune, and he was quickly accepted into the bohemian demimonde. He was notoriously gregarious and his passions included food, entertaining, fancy dress and sport. He was also noted for his loyalty, kind-heartedness, charm, intellect and remarkable psychological insight. However, his private story, like that of many celebrities today, was one of a constant struggle with alcohol abuse, self-doubt and, in his case, with the added challenges of physical disability.

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa was born on 4 November 1864 in Albi, near Toulouse in south-west France. He was of high birth, descended from three lines of French aristocrats, including the Counts of Toulouse who for centuries had controlled all of southern France. His parents, Alphonse Charles Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (1838–1913) and Adèle Zoë Tapié de Celeyran (1841–1930), were first cousins, which resulted in Henri inheriting serious health problems. He was frequently ill as a child and, most notably, suffered from a rare bone disorder. In his early teens he broke both legs as a consequence of two separate accidents, which left him crippled and halted the growth of his legs. He walked with a cane for the rest of his life and was just four-and-a-half feet (one-and-a-half metres) tall. In later life his physical appearance was often greeted with revulsion: the singer Yvette Guilbert (1867–1944), for example, described being ‘stopped cold by the sight’ on first meeting him.† Unable to fully participate in physical pursuits such as hunting, and already displaying a talent for drawing and painting, the young Lautrec took art lessons with a local instructor and family friend, René Princeteau (1843–1914). In 1882 he travelled to Paris to study under the academic painter Léon Bonnat (1833–1922), and later at the studio of Fernand Cormon (1845–1924), where he met and befriended Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), Émile Bernard (1868–1941) and Louis Anquetin (1861–1932), all of whom were to become leading artists of the avant-garde. It was during this period that Lautrec had his first taste of freedom, discovering café society and the art of the Impressionists. He soon settled in the bohemian district of Montmartre in northern Paris, where he fully embraced the vibrant and liberated lifestyle. This was an area of the capital where eccentric behaviour was welcomed and encouraged, and Lautrec, who had a regular income from his family, could be found every night drinking and constantly sketching at his favourite haunts: the Moulin Rouge (where he had a reserved seat), the Chat Noir and the Mirliton.

Although his few submissions to the official Salon were rejected, Lautrec achieved commercial and popular success during his lifetime, and exhibited in independent and solo shows in Paris, Brussels and London. He frequently took the steamer across the channel to England, and was a good friend of the writer and aesthete Oscar Wilde (1854–1900). Indeed, he was a confirmed anglophile and, in Paris, moved in Anglo-French circles, along with the likes of JacquesÉmile Blanche (1861–1942) and Charles Conder (1868–1909). He 8

Fig.1 | Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, from ‘ToulouseLautrec’ by Gerstle Mack, published 1938 Photograph, unknown photographer, 1938 Private collection

entertained lavishly and, happier in company, would almost always share his living quarters with other artists. During the early 1890s, he took to spending time in brothels, where he was inspired to sketch the young women’s day-to-day lives. However, his debauched lifestyle, which included regularly imbibing absinthe, a potent drink known for its hallucinogenic side effects, eventually took its toll. In 1897, Lautrec began to show signs of a­ lcoholism, and from this point onwards he became increasingly dependent. His health deteriorated rapidly.

Following a bout of delirium in 1899, he was institutionalised at the Folie Saint-James asylum in Neuilly for eleven weeks. Eventually, in the late summer of 1901, his mother had him brought to her estate at the Château Malromé in Saint-André-du-Bois, where he suffered a stroke and died on 9 September, at the age of only thirty-six. † Montreal 1968, p.17.

9

10

19

James Abbott McNeill Whistler 1834–1903

Loïe Fuller Dancing, 1892–93

Pen and black ink on off-white woven paper, 20.9 x 31.9 cm The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: bequeathed by Rosalind B. Philip, 1958

Loïe Fuller captivated artists, poets and intellectuals of the fin de siècle with her dance performances. She was depicted by, among others, Auguste Rodin (1840– 1917), Maurice Denis, William Nicholson (1872–1949), Lautrec and her fellow American James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

Once resident in Paris, where he had been a keen adherent to the Bohemian lifestyle, Whistler, now living in London, 66

was a regular visitor to the city, where he still kept a studio. He was one of the first artists to witness Fuller’s performances at the Folies-Bergère, producing this sheet of drawings not long after her debut.

These highly evocative sketches capture the motion, shapes and patterns created by her costume, which often almost completely obscured her body. HB

Fig.22 | Atelier de Reutlingers active 1850–1937 Photographic portrait of Loïe Fuller, late 19th century Photograph, 16 x 10.7 cm V&A Theatre and Performance: Gabrielle Enthoven Collection

Fig.23 | Unidentified photographer, 19th century, Photographic portrait of Loïe Fuller, late 19th century Photograph, 16.5 x 10.7 cm V&A Theatre and Performance: Gabrielle Enthoven Collection

20

Jules Chéret 1836–1932

Yvette Guilbert, Au Concert Parisien, 1891

Printer: Chaix (Atelier Chéret), Paris Lithograph in red, yellow, blue, grey-green and black ink on paper, 120.7 x 85.1 cm Private collection

In reverse of the normal ‘progression’ from café-concert to traditional theatre, Yvette Guilbert made her debut as a theatre actress in Paris in 1887 but soon moved to perform at the café-concerts of Montmartre. Here, she achieved great fame and a cult status. She sang in her own ‘diseuse’ style – half-singing, halfspeaking and using a vocal range of, by her own admission, just six notes.

According to Arthur Byl, Guilbert sang ‘coldly, and without gestures, songs of a concentrated spiciness calculated to bring the blush to a monkey’s cheek’.† Rather than conceal her unfashionably thin figure, Guilbert wore long black gloves and simple dresses to exaggerate it.

Chéret portrays the performer as if mid-song, and has bestowed on Guilbert a lively appearance at odds with her cool and ironic, deadpan stage persona.

Instead, the poster reveals Chéret’s lightness of touch, bright colours, and the infectious gaiety of his flattering images. HB

† Arthur Byl in his accompanying text for Yvette Guilbert, série anglaise (The English Series), 1898 (cat.23).

68

21

Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen 1859–1923

Yvette Guilbert, 1894

Printer: Charles Veneau, Paris Lithograph in red, yellow, brown, olive, blue and black ink on two sheets of paper, 185.5 x 81 cm The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

This famous poster shows a confident and composed Yvette Guilbert about to enter the stage at the elegant Ambassadeurs café-concert. The bold simplicity of Steinlen’s graphics and pared-down patches of colour reflect Guilbert’s pale make-up, plain style of dress and the understated nature of her stage act. The almost life-size figure, with red hair, long neck and upturned nose, is recognisably Guilbert.

The Swiss artist Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen’s huge output of posters, song sheets, theatre programmes and journal illustrations made him one of the most prominent printmakers of the period.

Frequently compared, he and Lautrec depicted several of the same subjects and often vied for celebrity commissions.

Lautrec pictured Guilbert countless times, but his only known poster project for her (in 1894) was rejected by the singer, who favoured this more commercial design and decidedly more flattering image. HB

70