Paris (AFP)

Twenty-seven years after his last retrospective in France, Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) is celebrated at the Grand Palais (until 27 January). The opportunity to discover in some 200 works the singularity of an artist too often reduced to his subjects: cabarets, brothels and folklore Montmartre.

- Trajectory -

Albertite aristocrat born in 1864, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec suffers from a disability that prevents him from growing up (he measures 1.52 m). This handicap takes him away from a conventional life but will allow him to fully live his passion, painting, in late-century Paris, nocturnal and often unseen.

From naturalist training in Fernand Cormon's studio in Montmartre, he moved away from it quickly, choosing to focus on interiors and enclosed spaces and to capture the protagonists of "modern life" through portraits, a major genre in his work, leaving his talent as a draftsman.

Settled in Montmartre, he discovers cabarets, theaters and cafes, which he celebrates the atmospheres and stars as La Goulue who will be among his favorite models, and Jane Avril and Yvette Guilbert, represented in sleek line drawings highlighting his long black gloves.

- Poster -

Unconventional, Toulouse-Lautrec will accept to make posters at the request of cabarets and café-concerts, and become one of the most famous posters of his time, then admired by Picasso. He will make a total of about thirty and will expose them "like a painting", seeing "a substitute for the great painting".

Advantage: it is exposed in the street. A showcase that befits this man who wants to be in touch with his time and the great visual culture (especially Spanish painting, plus photography and emerging cinema).

Among his most famous posters is the Moulin Rouge with La Goulue (1891), who appears with his leg up, dancing "the heckling". "What is striking about the contemporary is the plastic force of these images, with the colors' colors (the globes of yellow light in particular) and the shadows" representing the public, underline the curators of the exhibition.

Through the posters, the artist will also express his taste for the scenes of modern life, from cycling to cars. He created in 1896 an advertising poster for the Simpson Channel, with a velodrome scene.

- Modesty -

If Toulouse-Lautrec is the painter of the brothel (which he frequents assiduously and where he says to find girls his size), he is not scabrous, says Stéphane Guégan, co-curator of the exhibition. His ambition is to show this feminine microsociety as with the sequel "Elles" (1896), eleven color lithographs evoking prostitutes at different times of the day, which will have limited success with an audience accustomed to more erotic evocations.

In his paintings as the famous "At the lounge of the rue des Moulins" (1894), we see women smiling, languishing, sometimes at the sovereign pace, "a little to the + Olympia + Manet," says the specialist.

If we guess a woman undressing on the right of the table (for a medical visit?), The only trace of eroticism lies in the square of skin appearing between the stockings and the combination of the prostitute, in the center.

The abuse of this night owl will eventually affect the health of Toulouse-Lautrec, which will be interned at the request of his parents in Neuilly in 1899. He will come out but died two years later of syphilis and alcohol.

© 2019 AFP