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HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
French, 1864-1901
Le Divan Japonais, 1892
Color lithograph. 30 3/4 x 24 in. (78 x 61 cm)
Membership Purchase Fund. 67.25
Commissioned by Edouard Fournier, owner of the short-lived Montmartre night
club Divan Japonais, this enigmatic poster typifies many of the stylistic
changes that occurred in French art in the 1890s. Using bright colors and
a jarring Japanese perspective, Toulouse-Lautrec presents a scene of both
great vibrancy and subtle intrigue.
In the foreground, looming large, sits the famous dancer Jane Avril accompanied
by the critic Eduoard Dujardin, founder of the Revue Wagnerienne
and a theoretician of symbolist art. The two sit companionably side by side
with slight, knowing smiles on their lips as they observe the performance
of another of Montmartre's legends, the chanteuse Yvette Guilbert who is
distinguished by her trademark full-length black gloves. In portraying her,
Toulouse-Lautrec has cut off her head with the edge of the paper, a brilliant
compositional decision.
Toulouse-Lautrec was a master of such succinct characterizations and yet
for all his lampooning, he was sought after by many of the performers of
his day; to be depicted by him was a great honor. Both Guilbert and Avril
were frequent subjects, as were Aristide Bruant and May Belfort.
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