Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

1864 — 1901

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) was a French painter, printmaker and illustrator, born in Albi into an aristocratic family. Fractures to both thighs in adolescence left his legs stunted, and he walked with a cane. He trained in Paris under Léon Bonnat and Fernand Cormon, settled in Montmartre and spent roughly twenty years there. Influenced by Manet, Degas and Japanese woodblock prints, he recorded the nightlife of Paris: cabaret singers, dancers, circus performers and women in brothels. He is especially known for his posters, beginning with commissions for the Moulin Rouge, which opened in 1889, and for paintings such as At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance (1890). In less than twenty years he produced about 737 paintings, 363 prints and posters and thousands of drawings. He struggled with alcoholism, was placed in a sanatorium in 1899 and suffered strokes in 1901. He died on 9 September 1901 at his mother's estate, Château Malromé, aged 36.