"The imaginative and total integration into one decorative and instructive whole in his posters also owes much to Japanese prototypes." - Berthe Morisot"The drawings of a madman? These are the drawings of a mad man indeed, but only in the sense in which he used the term when he called himself 'the old man mad about drawing." - Arsene Alexandre
The assessments by his contemporaries of prints by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) have never been bettered, although they have been elaborated on. In this short life, the period that the artist devoted to prints was limited to his last decade, but it was a busy time that produced 362 works.
The assessments by his contemporaries of prints by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) have never been bettered, although they have been elaborated on. In this short life, the period that the artist devoted to prints was limited to his last decade, but it was a busy time that produced 362 works.
Toulouse-Lautrec made his first color lithograph in 1890. As Morisot was early to point out, the artist was smitten by the Japanese prints that had been recently discovered by the French.
Audacious as Toulouse-Lautrec was in his choice of subject
s (two women dancing together at the Moulin Rouge, for instance), what shocked his contemporaries equally was his use of color. The artist mastered the use of multiple lithographic stones, and so he introduced a world of complementary colors in the process. (Jules Cheret, who had been dubbed 'the father of the modern poster, was known for his bright reds, blues, and yellows.)
Muted as the colors are, they convey humor, too, from the subtlety of the little black dog on the sick woman's bed as he eyes the approaching doctor to the fury of the raging bull. Even the photographer P. Sescau, whose business Toulouse-Lautrec was employed to publicize, participated in the joke: a draped photographer whose lens has been transformed int
o bug eyes.
s (two women dancing together at the Moulin Rouge, for instance), what shocked his contemporaries equally was his use of color. The artist mastered the use of multiple lithographic stones, and so he introduced a world of complementary colors in the process. (Jules Cheret, who had been dubbed 'the father of the modern poster, was known for his bright reds, blues, and yellows.)
Muted as the colors are, they convey humor, too, from the subtlety of the little black dog on the sick woman's bed as he eyes the approaching doctor to the fury of the raging bull. Even the photographer P. Sescau, whose business Toulouse-Lautrec was employed to publicize, participated in the joke: a draped photographer whose lens has been transformed int
o bug eyes.
4 comments:
Ooh la la! Toulouse forever!
It's revealing to try to look at art through the eyes of its contemporaries.
Ah, Toulouse-Lautrec! I was fascinated by his posters for years before I had any idea who he was.
It's often enlightening reading contemporary accounts, thanks for this :)
Yes it is. Especially when they say it more succinctly rthan I could.
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