Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (full name Henri-Marie-Raymonde de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa) was born November 24, 1864, Albi, France and died September 9, 1901 in Malromé. French artist who observed and documented with great psychological insight the personalities and facets of Parisian nightlife and the world of French entertainment in the 1890s.
Much of the boy's time was spent at the Château du Bosc, one of the family estates near Albi. Henri's grandfather, father and uncle were all skilled draftsmen, and so it is not surprising that Henri started drawing at the age of 10. His interest in art grew due to his incapacity in 1878 by an accident in which he broke his left leg and only the following year also his left. These accidents, requiring long periods of convalescence and often painful treatments, left the legs atrophied and made walking more difficult. As a result, Toulouse-Lautrec devoted more and more time to art to while away the often lonely hours.
Toulouse Lautrec's first visit to Paris was in 1872, when he enrolled at the Lycée Fontanes (now Lycée Condorcet). He gradually transitioned to private tutors, and it was only after passing his matriculation exams in 1881 that he decided to become an artist.
His first professional painting teacher was René Princeteau, a friend of the Lautrec family. Princeteau's fame, such as it was, arose from his depiction of military and equestrian subjects, done in a 1882th-century academic style. Although Toulouse-Lautrec got on well with Princeteau, he switched to the atelier of Léon Bonnat at the end of 1883. His work received a more positive reaction in XNUMX, when he entered the studio of Fernand Cormon.
So it was that in the middle of the XNUMXs, Toulouse-Lautrec began his lifelong association with the bohemian life of Montmartre. The cafés, cabarets, entertainers and artists of this area of Paris fascinated him and led to his first real public recognition, focusing its attention on the representation of popular entertainers such as Aristide Bruant, Jane Avril, Loie Fuller, May Belfort, May Milton, Valentin le Désossé, Louise Weber.
Toulouse-Lautrec spent long periods observing the actions and behavior of prostitutes and their clients. A masterpiece of this period is genre is “Au salon de la rue des Moulins”.
This painting evokes the viewer's sympathy as he observes the isolation and loneliness of the "lost women": tired after a day's work in the brothel or after a show, rude or irreverent. At the Salon is therefore a brilliant demonstration of his declared desire to "represent the true and not the ideal", in which truth is not based on a careful representation of details, but rather on the acquisition, in a few short brushstrokes, of the 'essential real nature of a subject.
Toulouse-Lautrec greatly influenced late 36th and early XNUMXth century French art with his use of new subject types, his ability to capture the essence of an individual through inexpensive means, and his stylistic innovations. Despite his deformity and the effects of alcoholism and mental collapse later in life, Toulouse-Lautrec helped set the course of avant-garde art well beyond his early and tragic death at the age of XNUMX.
Investment value ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
How much is his work worth?
Following the preview, some top lots recorded in recent years.
Preview: to be auctioned on 9 September 2020 Estimate: €7.000 – €10.000Vanderkindere,
1180 Brussels Belgium. Signed upper left.
Clearing price: €409.070 ($450.000) Price including charges: €509.064 ($560.000) Estimate: €636.331 – €909.044 ($700.000 – $1.000.000 ) Sotheby's, 13/11/2019New York, United States
Signed “HT Lautrec” top left Notes: Works from the Collection of Joe R. & Teresa L. LongOrigin: Baumgarten Collection, Paris; Maurice Joyant, Paris; MG Dortu, Le Vésinet (acquired from the above circa 1930 and until at least 1959) ; Private Collection, Geneva; Acquired from the above on January 13, 2006Exposure: Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, 1959, no. 141.
Clearing price: €532 (CHF610) Estimate: €174 (CHF200) Dobiaschofsky Auktionen AG, 08/11/2018Bern, Switzerland. Sign in top right.
Clearing price: €795.538 (£700.000) Price including charges: €964.589 (£848.750) Estimate: €795.538 – €1.136.482 (£700.000 – £1.000.000) Christie's , 27/02/2018London, United Kingdom. Signed “HTLautrec” lower rightNotes: Dortu, II, P372Origin: Private collection, by descent from the above. Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2009.
Clearing price: €911.200 ($1.000.000) Price including charges: €1.100.274 ($1.207.500) Estimate: €1.366.800 – €2.278.000 ($1.500.000 – $2.500.000 ) Christie's , 15/05/2017 New York, United States. Notes: Dortu P.700Origin: Dr Georges Viau, Paris (by 1902). Anon. sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 6 June 1907, lot 32. Pierre Baudin, Paris (by 1914); sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 16 March 1921, lot 27. Jos Hessel, Paris. Galerie Durand-Ruel et Cie., Paris (18 September 1936). Durand-RuExposure: New York, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., 1964, no. 53.
Clearing price: €1.228.780 ($1.400.000) Price including charges: €1.483.313 ($1.690.000) Estimate: €526.620 – €702.160 ($600.000 – $800.000 ) Sotheby's, 10/05/2016New York, United States. Signed and dated “HT Lautrec 1901” lower left Notes: Paris, Galerie Rosenberg, 1914, no. 36 Sutton-Sugana 524a; Foucart 667.
Clearing price: €10.245.400 ($11.000.000) Price including charges: €11.628.529 ($12.485.000) Estimate: €9.314.000 – €13.971.000 ($10.000.000 – $15.000.000 )Christie's, 09/11/2015 New York, United States. Apoints: Washington, National Gallery of Art, 2005, No.251 Dortu P.438.
Clearing price: €9.555.000 ($10.500.000) Price including charges: €10.929.100 ($12.010.000) Estimate: €10.920.000 – €16.380.000 ($12.000.000 – $18.000.000 ) Sotheby's, 04/11/2015New York, United States. Signed “T Lautrec” lower leftNotes: Vienna, Österreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, 1966, no. 22 Dortu, III, P.582Origin: AA Taubman Collection.
Cover image: Detail of the painting The toilet, 67×54 made in 1889
