The Humanistic Tradition, Book 5 Romanticism, Realism, and the Nineteenth-Century World

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MAKING CONNECTIONS

124 CHAPTER 31 The Move Toward Modernism

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Toulouse-Lautrec

Cassatt’s gentle visions of domestic life stand in strong

contrast to the paintings of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

(1864–1901). Toulouse-Lautrec, the descendant of an aris-

tocratic French family, practiced many of the stylistic prin-

ciples of Impressionism, but his choice of subject matter

was often so intimate that members of his own family con-

demned his work as unacceptable to “well-bred people.”

The art of Toulouse-Lautrec captured the seamy side of

Parisian life—the life of cabaret dancers and prostitutes

who, like Zola’s Nana, lived on the margins of middle-

class society. Toulouse-Lautrec self-consciously mocked

traditional ideas of beauty and propriety. He stylized fig-

ures—almost to the point of caricature—in bold and force-

ful silhouettes. Flesh tones might be distorted by artificial

light or altered by the stark white make-up (borrowed from

Japanese theater) that was current in European fashion. At

The Moulin Rougeshows the patrons and entertainers of

the famous Montmartre cabaret that opened in late 1889

(Figure 31. 15 ). The unconventional perspective forces the

eye into the space above the diagonal axis of a balustrade,

where one encounters the jaded-looking assembly of styl-

ishly hatted men and women.

Figure 31.12 HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC,

Jane Avril, 1899. Lithograph, printed in color, 22  14 in.

The lithographic technique made possible the late nineteenth-

century art of the publicity poster. While he was not the first

to produce these commercial artworks, Toulouse-Lautrec was

among the pioneers of modern poster design. In the last ten

years of his life he would create some thirty lithographic

posters. Commissioned to design posters advertising the

popular cabaret known as the Moulin Rouge (“Red Mill”),

he produced some magnificent images of its famous can-can

dancer Louise Weber, known as La Goulue (the “greedy one”),

whose risqué high-kicking displays attracted enthusiastic

audiences. A poster of the Parisian entertainer who replaced

La Goulue, Jane Avril (Figure 31. 12 ), shows the artist’s brilliant

combination of

bright, flat colors,

sinuous lines, and

the sensitive

integration of

positive and

negative space—

stylistic features

that reflect the

direct influence of

Japanese kabuki

prints (Figure 31. 13 ).

Figure 31. 13

TORII KIYONOBU,

Actor as a Monkey

Showman, ca. 1720.

Woodblock print,

131 ⁄ 4  61 ⁄ 4 in.

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