Toulouse Lautrec Henri Marie Raymond de paintings. Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, paintings and creativity, gloss and poverty of nightlife in Paris

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa, Count Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa) - great French impressionist painter, post-impressionist. Born November 24, 1864 in Albi - died September 9, 1901 in the castle of Malrome, Gironde.

The future artist was born into an aristocratic family. His parents were real counts. A very tragic story is known that happened to the artist at the age of 13 and 14. When he was 13 years old, randomly getting up from a chair, he broke the femur of his left leg; at the age of 14, after falling into a ditch, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec broke his right leg. After that, his legs stopped growing and remained only 70 centimeters long until the end of his life. Many who initially noticed this defect soon simply forgot about it. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was a wonderful person, and he always spoke of his shortcoming with a great sense of self-irony. After Henri left his native land in 1871 and moved to Paris, his life changed dramatically and forever.

In Paris, he settled in Montmartre. Here he lived all his life. His favorite artists, from whose paintings he drew inspiration, were other French post-impressionist artists. At the beginning of his career as an artist, he was engaged in lithography, the creation of posters. Often painted the street life of France, places of entertainment. His models were dancers, clowns, poets, theater actors, singers.

Still, a problem with his legs and a height of 152 cm could not give him real happiness in life. Despite his efforts, many people laughed at his shortcomings, love affairs ended in a break. Critics of painting often treated his paintings badly. As a result of all this, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec led a wild life, drank a lot and died of alcoholism before the age of 37. The glory of the great French post-impressionist artist and the world name came to him a few years after his death.

Artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paintings:

The Reading Room at Melrum Castle

Reading a newspaper in the garden

Gypsy de Richepin

Girl in a corset

Jeanne Avril

Cabaret Japanese Sofa

Milliner

Beginning of the quadrille at the Moulin Rouge

Dance lessons at the Moulin Rouge

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC HENRI

(born in 1864 - died in 1901)

"I'm banging my head against the wall! And all this is for art, which is slipping out of my hands and, perhaps, will never be grateful to me for what I am doing for it now.

Toulouse-Lautrec

"We understand now that Toulouse-Lautrec seemed too unusual to us only because it was natural to the extreme."

Tristan Bernard

Toulouse-Lautrec lived a short but colorful life. Despite the injury, he never expected compassion from people and he himself laughed at himself, forestalling ridicule from the outside. He devoted himself entirely to art and worked tirelessly every day, despite his poor health.

Henri-Marie-Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec was born on November 24, 1864 in Albi, a city located in the southeastern part of the French Massif Central. He was the son of Count Alfonso de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montha and Countess Adele, née Tapier de Seleyran. The father of the future artist came from an old aristocratic family, who had lived in the vicinity of Toulouse since the 12th century. Mother was born in the family of an influential government official. The artist's father and mother were cousins, but marriages between Lautrec and Tapier were not uncommon. Some researchers believe that Henri's morbidity and subsequent injuries are to some extent explained precisely by the fact that he was born in a consanguineous marriage.

Toulouse-Lautrec received a good home education, as befitted a descendant of one of the most ancient and noble families in the country. In 1872, he entered the elite Lyceum Fountain (now the Lyceum Condorcet). A lively and temperamental boy, he was much smaller than his peers. Narrow shoulders, thin legs, sunken chest - everything seemed to foreshadow the coming disaster. The father was the complete opposite of the son. Tall and large, a tireless hunter and traveler, a passionate lover of women and horse racing, he led a stormy life and hoped that the only heir (the second son Richard died before he was a year old) would follow in his footsteps. Alas, Henri was destined for a completely different fate.

The boy passionately wanted to be like his father. Hunting, walking with dogs and riding determined the rhythm of the young Lautrec's life. At the same time, his first sketches and watercolors appeared, demonstrating the undeniable talent of the young author. When he was thirteen years old, his father gave his son a falconry manual with the inscription: “Remember, my son, that life can be healthy only in the wild, among nature. Bondage leads to degeneration and death.”

On May 30, 1878, Henri fell unsuccessfully from a low chair. What for another teenager would have been just an unfortunate episode, for him became a tragedy: the fall led to a fracture of the neck of the left femur. Gypsum. Weeks of immobility. Movement in a wheelchair. All doctors and all medicines have been tried, but the boy's bones are too fragile and do not grow together well.

However, both he and his loving mother still hoped for a recovery. But the miracle didn't happen. The following summer, history repeated itself - during a walk, Henri slipped and fell into a small ravine. As a result - a fracture of the neck of the right femur.

He will forever remain a cripple, besides, his legs will partially atrophy and he will stop growing (the height of an adult Lautrec barely reached 1.5 m). A handsome boy turns into an ugly young man: a disproportionately large head, huge nose, short legs.

But Henri does not lose heart. He courageously and with his characteristic humor tries to come to terms with his fate. The sick, bedridden Lautrec writes: "I draw and write as much as I can, until my hand drops from fatigue." The boy's talent is becoming more and more obvious, and the mother begins to understand that she is facing a future talented artist. Countess Adele continues to take her son to hospitals. The pain in my legs is slowly subsiding. In 1880, Lautrec writes in his diary about his "passion for drawing" that captured him.

When Count Alfonso finally realized that his son would never ride a horse and would not continue the traditions and heir to the lifestyle of de Toulouse-Lautrec, he simply stopped taking care of the boy. Until his death, the artist perceived his father's attitude as a betrayal. He was strongly attached to his mother, who from the very beginning realized that his son would become an artist. They were very close by joint trips to resorts after tragic fractures in 1878-1879. Mother was the only member of this noble family who understood and accepted Henri's work. In 1892, the artist writes to her: "My family cannot share my joy, but you are completely different."

In November 1881, he passed the bachelor's degree exam, but due to an unstoppable desire to study only painting, he stopped further studies.

On the advice of Rene Prensto, an animal painter and family friend, Toulouse-Lautrec in March 1882 begins to study with the famous artist Leon Bonn. The Bonn workshop was one of the most famous in Paris. The master bluntly declares to the novice artist: “There is something in your work, in general it’s not bad, but your drawing is simply terrible!” Criticism only spurs Henri, ione plunges headlong into work.

In the winter of 1882, Bonnat closed his workshop, and Henri moved on to Fernand Cormon, also a recognized painter specializing in historical subjects. At Cormon, Henri meets Vincent van Gogh, Emile Bernard, Louise Ankvetino and other young artists. Friendly relations are established between them, but at the same time, creative rivalry also arises.

Gradually the friends move away from the traditional, conservative style taught by Cormon. At first, they are indiscriminately fond of impressionism, but soon their inherent innovative tendencies appear in their work. The period of trials and experiments in painting coincides with the changes that take place in the lifestyle of Toulouse-Lautrec. The young artist discovers Montmartre, at that time a poor district of Paris, which became the abode of artistic bohemia, and falls in love with the relaxed atmosphere reigning there.

In the summer of 1884, Lautrec left the Parisian home of his parents and moved to live in Montmartre, in the apartment of the young artist Rene Grenier, whom he met while studying with Cormon. In the same house on the rue Fontaine on the first floor in 1879-1891 housed the workshop of Edgar Degas, whom Lautrec considered one of the best contemporary artists.

The artist's mother is unhappy with this decision. She is afraid that without her, her son will go down the "crooked" path. However, he often writes letters to her, and this calms Countess Adele a little. "I'm bored in bars, I have no desire to leave the house, the only thing left to do is paint and sleep." The artist's decision does not delight the father, who would like his son to live in a more decent area, such as the Champs Elysees.

It soon became clear that the parents' concern was completely justified: the artist's life is changing very quickly. In letters written in the spring and summer of 1886, there are hints of "an addiction to the bottle." It even happens that he writes to his mother about the nights he spent "on the pavement."

At the end of the 19th century, Montmartre was known as the habitat of the overthrowers of the established order. In numerous cabarets and music bars, the legitimacy of existing social norms and prohibitions was constantly questioned. Montmartre of that time is the center of corrupt love. Toulouse-Lautrec discovers there a very special world, still unknown to him, and this world will be reflected in his works. In a letter dated December 1886, he states that he does not want to write about what he is currently painting, as he believes that some of his paintings are "out of bounds." It even comes to the point that he begins to sign his paintings with a pseudonym so as not to compromise the eminent family.

In the last months of training with Cormon (which ended in early 1887), Lautrec devoted less and less time to traditional themes and techniques. Along with the classical technique of writing, he increasingly uses impressionistic techniques that enliven his drawing. First of all, he chooses realistic themes, which will dominate in his subsequent works: city festivities, street performances, dance evenings, circus, cabaret, theater.

The bold images of his paintings will cause him to leave (or exile) from the usual circle of secular society. The more Lautrec moves away from aristocratic relatives, the stronger his connection with the world of Montmartre becomes, which becomes a source of inexhaustible inspiration for the artist. In the mid-80s, Lautrec was predominantly nocturnal. He is a regular visitor to the Mirliton cabaret, owned by his friend, singer and composer Aristide Bruan. For a long time next to him was the first and, apparently, the only love of Suzanne Valadon, who at first was the model of Edgar Degas and Auguste Renoir, and later became a famous artist herself.

Montmartre then thundered with music in the evenings and was famous throughout Paris for constant entertainment and dancing. In the Moulin de la Galette, and later in the Moulin Rouge, Lautrec watches with enthusiasm the frivolous papas of the then fashionable can-can. Then he met the "cabaret stars" of that time, the dancers who became his "muses" - La Goulue, Jane Avril and pop clown Sha-Yu-Kao.

The artist does not miss the opportunity to visit the brothels of Montmartre. It happens that he spends there for several weeks in a row. These nightly adventures become a source of his inspiration. As he himself said: "Every evening I go to work in a bar." His best friend, Maurice Joyayan, confirming what has been said, clarifies: “Some brothels became his main apartment. Lautrec painted there without respite, noting every incident in the life of the inhabitants of these institutions.

Creativity Lautrec - a kind of poem dedicated to women. Dancers, laundresses, women of easy virtue, just friends of the artist - they all became a source of inspiration for him. Being in the world of women, Lautrec depicted their life with great passion, sometimes with irony, but always sensuality is seen in his paintings. His friend Paul Leclerc recalled: “Lautrec adored women, and the less logical they behaved, the more he liked them. He had only one condition: they had to be real.”

The first exhibition of works by Toulouse-Lautrec takes place in 1886 at the Mirliton cabaret. In May of the following year, Lautrec exhibited his work in Toulouse, as part of the International Exhibition organized by the Academy of Fine Arts, under the pseudonym Treklo. But only participation in the Brussels "Exhibition XX", where eleven of his works were presented, brings him true recognition. From that moment on, Lautrec feels like a real artist. He writes to his mother that "you need to exhibit wherever possible, because this is the only opportunity to be noticed."

He does not take part in the official Parisian Salons, but exhibits from the Salon des Indépendants, organized under the motto "Without pay and awards", along with artists such as Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and Camille Pissarro. At the sixth Salon

Independents” in March 1890, Lautrec presents “Dance at the Moulin Rouge” and “Mademoiselle Dio at the piano”. After many years of studying academism, Lautrec comes to the extreme avant-garde. But at the same time, he distances himself from all existing trends, defending his creative independence.

By 1891, the unique style of Lautrec was finally formed. He finally became an artist whose works are of interest to art lovers, exhibition organizers, and publishing houses. His work is warmly received by critics. The artist is exhibited together with nabids 18 and representatives of other trends of the then avant-garde.

Creativity Toulouse-Lautrec bears the imprint of his time. Mastering a variety of artistic techniques, carried away by various trends in painting, he, nevertheless, was able to maintain his originality. The original and original style allowed him to capture the spirit of the era in which he lived and which he carefully observed. The principle of his creative life was to draw and depict what seemed really important, even if they were fleeting moments. He made painting the property of ordinary people.

Although in the work of Toulouse-Lautrec you can see almost all the artistic trends of the late nineteenth century, his work cannot be attributed to any current. This is not realism, not impressionism and not symbolism. He repeated: "I do not belong to any school, but I work independently in my corner." The originality of his work is fully consistent with his unusual nature.

Like every great artist, Toulouse-Lautrec absorbed the traditions of both old and modern masters. Like all artists of his time, Lautrec experienced a fascination with impressionism. On his first canvases, made in 1878 and 1879, strokes are intermittent, light colors predominate in the palette. Among the Impressionists, Lautrec preferred those artists in whose work portraits dominated landscapes - Edouard Manet and Auguste Renoir. “There is only man,” Lautrec argued. “Landscape is something extra and should only be used to show the essence of human nature and human character.” About Claude Monet, he said: "He would be a much better artist if he had not abandoned the images of people to such an extent."

He adored Edgar Degas. From the mid-1880s, during the time when he studied classical fine art in the workshop of Cormon, Lautrec learned and later began to use the technique characteristic of Degas. He appreciated Degas' color scheme and the subtle lighting effects achieved through a unique technique. It was the techniques borrowed from Degas that allowed Lautrec to capture the very essence of fleeting scenes and skillfully convey it on his canvases. Lautrec became a worthy heir to Degas, which was especially pronounced when he began to paint scenes in cabarets and cafes in Montmartre.

Toulouse-Lautrec drew inspiration from various sources. To understand his work in all its depth, you need to turn to the Italian Renaissance artist Vittore Carpaccio, to the Dutch Rembrandt and Frans Hals, as well as to the Gothic, to the masters of Japanese engraving. Lautrec was not afraid to combine his own techniques with modern trends. In the early 1990s, he was close to the work of Nabids and Symbolists, which makes his drawing more calm, and the color scheme more harmonious. Lautrec's lithographs become more decorative, a period of creative flourishing begins. Without breaking away from topics close to reality, Lautrec introduces the grotesque into his work, close to his ironic character.

Lautrec brings his paintings closer to caricature. Already during the training in drawing at the courses of classical fine art, the artist had problems with the exact transfer of nature. “His paintings were never an accurate reflection of reality: they had some elements that brought it closer. He reflected life in striking images,” said journalist and critic Felix Feneon.

Lautrec had all the prerequisites for drawing caricatures. He was greatly influenced by cartoonists: Honoré Damier and Jean-Louis Forant. He finds in them the same disregard for everything ordered and idealized, which he himself differs from. Like them, he prefers the "polite and beautiful" art of drawing the ruthlessness of the caricature. Lautrec's gaze becomes even more critical and sharp.

It must be remembered that the irony of Lautrec does not arise from gloating. Quite the contrary, the satirical depictions of his dancers are full of warmth and sympathy. This is confirmed by the posters representing the dancer Jane Avril and the cabaret singer Yvette Hilber.

His whipping pencil is not devoid of compassion. “You sing praises in honor of the scoundrel and at the same time point to his open wounds,” one of the journalists addressed Lautrec in 1893. A year later, another critic praised his "accurate observations, full of taunts and derision." Toulouse-Lautrec was considered the artist of his era. Many historical moments can be found in his paintings. He himself stressed the need for truth. He often claimed, speaking of his work, "I tried to convey the truth." The accuracy of the stroke allowed him to convey the naked reality of the end of the century. This is the greatness of the art of Toulouse-Lautrec.

At the end of the century, the technique of painting is experiencing a new round of development. Drawings in magazines, sketches in newspapers, lithographs in theater programs, advertisements on the walls: a new reality of art is born. Toulouse-Lautrec uses his talent in new areas that have opened up. When working on posters, he is forced to use a limited number of colors, which are superimposed in flat spots. This reinforces his propensity for unexpected and risky decisions and, in the end, becomes a characteristic feature of his work.

Applying a new printing technique, Toulouse-Lautrec is also making improvements in this area. Full of enthusiasm, he writes to his mother: “I have come up with a new technique in lithography. My experiments are moving forward without problems." In 1891, lithography was at the center of his hobbies. His first own work of this kind - "La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge" - won a resounding success. The minimalist style used by Lautrec fully met the requirements of the advertising poster. During this period, painting is relegated to the background. He begins to cooperate with publishers. Orders flow to him like a river: covers for scores, maps and menus for restaurants, illustrations for books.

At the end of 1894, by his own admission, he was swamped with work. Creativity Lautrec takes a completely different direction. He intrudes into the wider social environment, not wanting to achieve recognition of salons and galleries. His art is accessible to everyone. Of course, most of this work is about making money, but this does not stop the artist from creating works of the highest quality. His posters are masterpieces. Critic Felix Feneon called Lautrec "the artist of the street": "Here, instead of paintings closed in gilded frames and covered with dust, you can find real life art, color posters. This open-air exhibition is accessible to everyone.”

In early 1896, the Mangy-Joyant Gallery in Paris organized a large exhibition of works by Toulouse-Lautrec. But the artist's state of health is deteriorating, which every time more and more noticeably affects his work.

In the last period, the life story of Toulouse-Lautrec turns from a farce into a tragedy.

The lifestyle that the artist led for ten years undermined his already fragile body. Lautrec is increasingly complaining of weakness. Early in 1898 he writes: “Even a little effort becomes unbearable. Because of this, my creativity suffers, and I still have so much to do. He becomes more and more aggressive and restless. His inherent humor and love of life leave the artist.

But he continues to create, to create with passion, even at night, often with a bottle of wine. In this state, he creates about 60 lithographs, presented at an exhibition dedicated to his work in the London hall of the Goupil gallery in 1898. The artist falls asleep during the opening day, which was honored by the presence of the future King Edward VII.

Throughout the winter, he drinks deeply (alcoholism becomes chronic), suffers from insomnia, hallucinations and persecution mania. In March 1899, Toulouse-Lautrec's relatives put Toulouse-Lautrec in a psychiatric clinic near Paris, in the town of Neuilly. Staying in the hospital depresses him. “I am in captivity, but where there is no freedom, degeneration and death come!” he writes to his father, repeating his own words. In May, Henri leaves the clinic and finds the strength to create a wonderful album "Circus".

In the next two years, his paintings become increasingly gloomy and melancholic. During this period, a distant relative Paul Villot was next to him, assigned to him by his relatives for supervision so that the artist would not drink. In the spring of 1901, as if anticipating his death, Lautrec cleans up his studio, finishes sketches and signs paintings that did not have his signature.

On July 15 he leaves Paris with Paul Villot. The state of health is deteriorating. His legs are taken away. His mother takes him to the Malrome family estate, where on September 9, 1901, at the age of 37, he dies in her arms.

The work of Toulouse-Lautrec became a source of inspiration for Egon Schiele and Auguste Rodin. His portraits inspired Edouard Munch, for whom Toulouse-Lautrec was an unsurpassed genius in portraiture. It should not be forgotten that he influenced Pablo Picasso, who enthusiastically discovered the work of Lautrec on his first visit to Paris. But not only artists paid tribute to the genius of Toulouse-Lautrec. The famous director Federico Fellini spoke of the great artist this way: “I have always considered Lautrec my brother and friend. Maybe because it was he who anticipated the shortness of the film, and after him the Lumiere brothers made their invention. And also, probably, because he - like me - was attracted by torn and discarded creatures.

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Street Muses (Henri Toulouse-Lautrec) On a stormy day on November 24, 1864, Henri Marie-Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec was born. No one, of course, imagined that the future artist of Parisian bohemia was born in a family of aristocrats. His parents Countess Adele and Count Alphonse are first cousins.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, biography, interesting facts from the life of the impressionist artist and paintings in passing. Henri was a very curious person. The history of his life is no less curious than his paintings. Lautrec is an artist of night cabarets and the Moulin Rouge in particular. It was the cabaret Moulin Rouge that served Lautrec as a springboard to fame.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, biography, family and childhood.

So, imagine, here lives a family of such standard self-satisfied aristocrats. Cousin Alphonse (father) is married to a cousin (mother). Well, as without incest - the aristocracy is the same. Mom is a quiet kind woman, from the series of fasting, praying, listening to radio Radonezh.

Dad is a model eccentric aristocrat, such a crazy horseman, the soul of the company, a fan of falconry and blackjack and whores of entertainment. According to rumors, he also adored eccentric antics a la Salvador Dali. If you believe Wikipedia, then love for prostitutes, alcohol, fairs, circuses and gloss Henri de Toulouse Lautrec the younger one is indebted to the older one.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, biography. Attitude towards the work of the artist in the family.

However, nothing human is alien to aristocrats either, Henri's father and mother were educated people, good draftsmen. In the houses of the Lautrecs there were many different paintings, drawings and sketches, and drawing was a frequent pastime of leisure.

Alphonse Lautrec's friends also included Rene Prensto, a good artist of all kinds of hunts, dogs and horses, from whom father and son often took lessons. It was Rene Prensto who first noticed the talent Henri de Toulouse Lautrec and taught him the art of quick sketching, drawing nature in motion.

All this, however, did not prevent the father from reproaching his son for daring, shamelessly, to become an artist. A descendant of an ancient family - earns (already only it plunges into horror) by smearing the canvas. A shame. Okay, okay, maybe I’m distorting a little - my father was a noble lover of painting and in Lautrec’s work he was more outraged by Henri’s manner as an artist and objects of the image (well, confused, cabaret artists and so on). As they say, the family is not without an impressionist.

Biography of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, childhood and illness

So, in this family, where the husband changes women like gloves and poisons the unfortunate animals with falcons, and the mother prays quietly, a poor fellow is born Henri de Toulouse Lautrec. These circumstances alone could not positively affect the psyche of the child. Hyper-guardianship of the mother and numerous castle servants also left their indelible imprint.

As a child, Henri, like his father, loved to ride horses and chase animals. However, he did not differ in physical development and was often sick. However, the kid was smart and studied well. Languages ​​were especially good: Latin, English, everything. And everything would be fine, but at the age of 14 he falls and breaks his leg. Tellingly, he falls off his chair.

Obviously, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec was sick with some kind of hereditary disease, like Lobstein's disease (syndrome of "crystal bones"). This is followed by a long period of rehabilitation, all sorts of sanatoriums, Nice and people in white coats. And now, after a long recovery, a little more than a year later, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec Jr. falls again, this time into a ditch and again breaks his bones. Amazing luck. These injuries, as well as a possible genetic disease, led to "dwarfism" - the lower limbs practically stopped growing. Which made my father unspeakably upset.

In the end, he counted on a worthy successor to the family, who would be engaged in deeds worthy of an aristocrat - i.e. chasing partridges, tearing up frivolous high-born ladies, getting married profitably, and then dying fighting for their homeland. Now, hunting, balls and many other useless secular entertainments of the aristocracy were not available to Henri. But, there is nothing without a beaver, as the artist himself said: “surprisingly, if my legs were a little longer, I would never begin to draw.” During the illness, the passion for painting finally captured Henri de Toulouse Lautrec. Then he painted mainly his environment: animals, nature and relatives.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec in Montmartre.

Soon, the artist, together with maman, moved to Paris, where he studied in the workshop of Leon Bonn, by the way, a pretty good portrait painter. Bonn, a stern academic mastodon, despite all the zeal and reverence of Henri, Lautrec's talent, however, did not appreciate. Leona soon dissolves her workshop and Henri moves to study with Fernand Cormon (the same one from whom Van Gogh studied). Cormon, although he himself gravitated towards academic painting, nevertheless adhered to broader views than Bonna.

At the age of 19, the artist decides that it is time and moves to Montmartre. Here it is Henri de Toulouse Lautrec who indulges in all serious, does not climb out of taverns for days on end and works for days on end, drawing prostitutes, circus performers, artists and regulars, while not forgetting to absorb liters of wine. The second home for Henri was the Mirliton cabaret, and its owner Bruant is one of his best friends. Toulouse Lautrec cruised between the haunts of Montmartre: Chas Noir, Moulin de la Galette, Mirliton.

The artist lived to the fullest, trying with the splendor of Montmartre, drawing and alcohol to drown out disappointment in himself and mental pain due to his physical defect. However, among the variegated public of the demimonde, the artist felt at home, Montmartre of that time, this refuge of variegated outcasts, vagabonds, freaks, artists and rake, became a real home for the artist.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec and the Moulin Rouge.

So, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, in fact, lived: he painted, was in an alcoholic fog and periodically ran into nature somewhere on the estate. Lautrec's paintings, however, were not particularly popular until Joseph Oller decided to open the Moulin Rouge. The real glory of Lautrec, as an artist, began precisely with the poster of this cabaret.

Henri's style, with its conciseness, brightness and subtle psychologism, was the most suitable for a graphic poster. After Lautrec's posters, crowds of people poured into the Moulin Rouge, and the artist himself was known to no less people than I would host a cabaret - La Goulue. We can say that the Moulin Rouge owes its success not least to Lautrec. Henri was even given a separate table in this cabaret, where other visitors could not sit.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, syphilis and the last days.

Here he would settle down, get some vicious little wife and model and rest on his laurels, drawing pictures and posters. But, as often happens in this case, wine and an inferiority complex prevented. Or maybe Lautrec was just unlucky and that's why he never met his ""?

Be that as it may, the years of pouring alcohol down the throat were not in vain. In addition, trips to prostitutes, which the artist loved so much, also brought a gift. As always suddenly, one of the prostitutes (Red Rose) infected Henri de Toulouse Lautrec with syphilis. And maybe the body would have coped, people then live with syphilis for many years, until their nose falls off, and some even sometimes recover. For reference - in 30% of cases spontaneous recovery from syphilis occurs. But this only concerns the acute form. The artist, however, was not lucky - years in an alcoholic fog and lack of sleep undermined the immune system.

Attempts by relatives to cure Henri's alcoholism failed. After treatment at the Toulouse clinic, Lautrec soon began to drink again. As they say, I'm sober, sad and dull and cheerful, I'm drunk. The end is, of course, a bit predictable. Gradually, Henri began to get balls for rollers due to syphilis and alcoholic psychosis. He became irritable paranoid, hallucinations appeared.

In the end, Lautrec had a stroke, after which the artist was paralyzed. He spent his last days in the hospital as a half-crazy invalid. In the same place, Henri finished off another, again, a stroke. It is said that the last words of the artist were "Old Fool", obviously addressed to the hated father. So it goes.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec and women. Charlet, Valadon and the Red Rose of Lautrec.

With women, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, as usual, had no luck. Well, which of the aristocratic young ladies would like to connect their lives with a dwarf? Therefore, Henri had to be content with prostitutes and models. Henri's first woman was Marie Charlet, a 16-year-old model who slipped him Lucas (one of his friends). Yes, yes, gentlemen, in those days, a 16-year-old whore did not surprise anyone. And not only in France, guys, don't be fooled. Most importantly, keep crying for lost spirituality.

Actually, after this, the campaigns of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec began on prostitutes. Prostitutes, however, adored Henri, because the artist was kind, gentle, witty, courteous and saw in prostitutes not so much prostitutes as just women. There were some more timid romantic attempts to strike up relationships with women from his circle, but the end is a little predictable: "let's stay friends."

The artist had a truly serious relationship with Suzanne Valadon. An attractive model who had affairs with half the artists of Paris. However, this romance lasted only a few years due to the nasty and quarrelsome nature of both individuals.

Another woman in the life of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec was Red Rose, the same prostitute who infected him with syphilis. Lautrec, however, out of the kindness of his heart, never blamed the Red Rose for his illness. It is not known for certain what exactly connected the Red Rose and Lautrec - just a regular client, or maybe a lover, a friend? A mystery shrouded in darkness.

So it goes. I think Lautrec's problems with women were caused not only by physical imperfection, and not even so much by him, but by an inferiority complex. In the end, after all, he is not such a freak as he is described. Well, yes, far from handsome, well, a dwarf. But witty and the soul of the company. Are there few freaks that have been successful with women? Have you seen Diego Rivera at all? Yes, Lautrec is a handsome playboy compared to him.

Are there few women who do not pay too much attention to appearance? It is clear that not a single aristocrat would associate her life with a dwarf, but Toulouse Lautrec, with his fame, money and a suspended tongue, could well find a normal woman among the demimonde of Montmartre.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec film

Laughter through tears - this is how you can briefly characterize this film. An excellent biographical tape that quite accurately describes the life of the artist and reflects the spirit of that era. I highly recommend. I liked the movie

Lautrec, Lautrec, France, 1998 - full title. You can download it you know where.

The great artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the everyday writer of the Parisian bottom and a frequenter of the Moulin Rouge, made, probably, the strangest somersault in the history of painting: he preferred the existence of a bohemian outcast and an alcoholic to the life of a noble rich man. Lautrec was one of the most cheerful singers of vice, since his inspiration always had only three main sources and three components: brothels, Paris at night and, of course, alcohol.

Lautrec grew up in a family of classic degenerate aristocrats: his ancestors participated in the Crusades, and his parents were cousins. Papa Lautrec was a uniform alcoholic eccentric: by dinner he had a habit of going out in a plaid and a tutu. Henri himself was a very picturesque example of aristocratic degeneration. Due to a hereditary disease, the bones of his legs stopped growing after childhood injuries, as a result, Henri's full-fledged torso was crowned with Lilliputian legs. His height barely exceeded 150 centimeters. His head was disproportionately large, and his lips were thick and twisted.

At the age of 18, Lautrec first knew the taste of alcohol, the sensation of which he for some reason compared with "the taste of a peacock's tail in his mouth." Soon Lautrec became a living talisman of entertainment venues in Paris. He practically lived in the brothels of Montmartre. The relationship of pimps and whores, the drunken outrages of the rich, venereal diseases, the aging bodies of dancers, vulgar make-up - this is what the artist's talent was nourished by. Lautrec himself was no bastard: the young prostitute Marie Charlet once told Montmartre about the artist’s unprecedented manhood, and Toulouse himself jokingly called himself “a coffee pot with a huge spout.” He drank the “coffee pot” all night long, then got up early and worked hard, after which he again began to wander around the taverns and drink cognac and absinthe.

Gradually, delirium tremens and syphilis did their job: Lautrec painted less and worse, and drank more and more, turning from a cheerful jester into an evil dwarf. As a result, by the age of 37 he was paralyzed, after which the artist died almost immediately - as befits an aristocrat, in his family castle. The drunken father Lautrec put a tragicomic end to the dissolute life of the brilliant artist: believing that the carriage with the coffin in which Henri lay was moving too slowly, he urged on the horses, so that people had to run after the coffin in a hop to keep up.

Genius against drinking

1882 - 1885 Henri comes from his native Albi to Paris and enters the workshop as an apprentice, where he receives the nickname "liquor bottle". From a letter: “Dear mother! Send a barrel of wine; according to my calculations, I need one and a half barrels a year.

1886 - 1892 Parents appoint Lautrec maintenance, he rents a studio and an apartment in Montmartre. Next to the easel, Henri holds a battery of bottles: “I can drink without fear, I don’t fall high!” He meets Van Gogh, writes under his influence the painting "Hangover, or Drunkard".

1893 - 1896 Goes to Brussels for an exhibition, at the border he quarrels with customs officers for the right to bring a box of juniper vodka and Belgian beer into Paris. Usually he drinks himself to disgrace: “Saliva flowed down the lace of his pince-nez and dripped onto the vest” (A. Perryusho. “The Life of Toulouse-Lautrec”). At a secular reception, he acts as a bartender, deciding to knock down high society, for which he prepares killer cocktails. He boasts that he served more than two thousand glasses during the night.

1897 - 1898 He drinks so much that he loses interest in drawing. Friends are trying to take him out for a boat ride, because “he didn’t drink when he was at sea.” Falls in love with a relative Alina, thinks to quit drinking. But Alina's father forbids her to meet Henri, and he goes on a drinking binge.

1899 After an attack of delirium tremens, the artist's mother insisted that he go to a mental hospital. They give him only water to drink. One day, Lautrec discovers a bottle of dental elixir on the dressing table and drinks it. Trying to draw again.

1901 Leaves the clinic and returns to Paris in April 1901. At first he leads a sober life, but, seeing that his hand does not obey him, he begins to secretly drink with grief. Lautrec's legs are taken away and he is transported to the castle. The father, bored at the bedside of the dying man, shoots the rubber from the boots of the flies on the blanket. "Old fool!" - exclaims Lautrec and dies. But his paintings feel better: "Laundress" was bought in 2008 for 22.4 million dollars. Yes, and his image lives on: the lorgnetted Karl, the patron of the Parisian demimond, continues to excite the minds of modern creators (see Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge).

Only next to the clowns, acrobats, dancers and prostitutes Henri de Toulouse - Lautrec felt at home. Contemporaries did not accept the work of the artist. Having a natural talent and not being constrained by means, Toulouse-Lautrec could receive a brilliant art education. However, having mastered the basics of painting from modern masters, he began to develop his own, innovative aesthetics, far from academicism. Refusal of naturalism and detail (no folds on clothes, carefully traced hairs), emphasized, close to caricature, grotesque manner of rendering facial features and plasticity of characters, an abundance of movement and vivid emotions - these are the main characteristics of his style.

November 24, 1864 in the city of Albi, in the old family castle of the Counts of Toulouse Lautrec, a boy was born, who was named Henri de Toulouse - Lautrec. Lautrec's mother, Countess Adele, nee Tapier de Seleyran, and Count Alphonse de Toulouse - Lautrec - Monfa, - the artist's father, belonged to the highest circles of the aristocracy in France. Parents were especially reverent towards little Henri, in him they saw the successor of the family, the heir to one of the most significant families of the country. Count Alphonse imagined how his son would accompany him on his walks, riding through the count's lands and falconry. From an early age, the father taught the boy horse riding and hunting terminology, introduced him to his favorites - the stallion Usurper and the mare Volga. Henri grew up as a sweet, charming child, pleased his loved ones. With the light hand of one of the grandmothers of Lautrec, the youngest in the family was called " Little Treasure". Cheerful, agile, attentive and inquisitive, with lively dark eyes, he delighted everyone who saw him. At the age of three, he demanded a pen to sign. He was told that he could not write. “Well, let it be,” Henri replied, “I will draw a bull.”

Childhood is considered to be the happiest time in a person's life. But this happiness was overshadowed by drama or even tragedy for Henri. Born with poor health, he was often ill, grew slowly, and until the age of five his fontanel did not overgrow. The countess was worried about her boy and primarily blamed herself for his illnesses: after all, her husband was her cousin, and children in related marriages are often born unhealthy. When her second son, Richard, who was born two and a half years after Henri, died at the age of eleven months, Adele finally established herself in the idea that her marriage was a mistake. And it's not just about the illnesses of children - a pious woman gave her husband a lot, but over time, their family life began to be filled with misunderstanding, bitterness and disunity. For a long time, Adele tried to put up with the count's rudeness and betrayal, with his quirks and whims, but in August 1868 there was a final break - she stopped considering Alphonse her husband. In a letter to her sister, she said that now she intended to treat him only as a cousin. However, they still portrayed spouses and were polite to each other in public - after all, they had a son, and in addition, it was necessary to observe the rules of decency accepted in society. But since then, all her attention, all her love has been given to Henri.

Count Alphonse loved aristocratic entertainment - hunting, horseback riding, horse racing - and passed on to his son a love of horses and dogs.

The count was also interested in art and often came with his young son to the workshop of his friend, the artist Rene Prensto, with whom Henri soon became friends. Prensto was not only an animal painter, he was a dexterous rider, a lover of dog hunting and racing.

With great knowledge of the matter, he painted horses, dogs, hunting scenes, and real portraits of animals came out from under his brush - he could convey their character, habits, grace. Soon the younger Lautrec began to come alone to his father's friend. He could spend hours admiring how Prensto creates his paintings, and then he himself took a pencil and tried to leave a clearly visible and bright trace of everything that caught his eye on a sheet of paper: dogs, horses, birds. He was good at it, and Prensto could not help but admit that the boy definitely had talent.

In Paris, where the Lautrec family moved in 1872, Henri is determined to the Lyceum. It grows very slowly; the smallest among peers, receives the nickname "Kid". The margins of his notebooks filled with drawings much faster than the pages with letters and numbers.

Often skipping classes due to constant illnesses, Henri nevertheless studied with honors. After several years of study, Countess Adele was rightfully proud of her boy - he not only drew breathtakingly, but was also recognized as one of the best students of his lyceum. She rejoiced at her son's success, but she was more and more worried about his health: the doctors suspected he had bone tuberculosis - Henri was already ten years old, and he still remained very small. The wall at which all the cousins ​​​​and cousins ​​\u200b\u200bin their estate noted the growth and which the Little Treasure tried to avoid, the servants called among themselves " wailing wall».

At the end of May 1878, an unforeseen misfortune happened to Henri. He was sitting in the kitchen on a low chair, and when he tried to get up, leaning clumsily on his stick, without the help of which he no longer had the strength to move, he fell and broke the neck of the femur of his left leg. And barely recovering from a previous severe injury, after a little over a year, Henri stumbled on a walk and broke the neck of his right thigh ... Parents full of despair did not lose hope in Henri's recovery. But the boy did not allow tears, did not complain - on the contrary, he tried to cheer up those around him. The best and most widely known doctors came to Henri, he was taken to the most expensive resort places. Soon, the disease dormant in his body made itself felt in full force. Some doctors attributed Lautrec's disease to the group of polyepiphyseal dysplasia. According to others, the reason for Henri's small stature was osteopetrosis (painful thickening of the bone), which proceeds in a mild form.

His limbs stopped growing altogether, only his head and body became disproportionately huge in relation to his short legs and arms.

The figure on "children's legs" with "children's hands" looked very ridiculous. A charming child turned into a real freak. Henri tried to look as little as possible in the mirror - after all, apart from large, burning - black eyes, there was nothing attractive in his appearance left. The nose became thick, the protruding lower lip hung over the sloping chin, the short hands grew disproportionately huge. Yes, and the words that the deformed mouth uttered were distorted by a lisp, the sounds jumped one on top of the other, he swallowed the syllables and, speaking, spattered with saliva. Such tongue-tiedness, coupled with the existing defect in the musculoskeletal system, did not at all contribute to the development of Henri's spiritual harmony. Fearing the ridicule of others, Lautrec he learned to make fun of himself and his own ugly body, without waiting for others to start making fun and mocking. Such a technique of self-defense was used by this amazing and courageous person, and this technique worked. When people first met Lautrec, they laughed not at him, but at his witticisms, and when they got to know Henri better, they certainly fell under his charm.

Lautrec understood that fate, having deprived him of health and external attractiveness, endowed him with extraordinary and original drawing abilities. But to become a worthy artist, one had to study. The painter Leon Bonnat was then very famous in Paris, and Toulouse-Lautrec signed up for his courses. Lautrec believes all the remarks of the teacher and tries to destroy everything original in himself. His classmates only in the early days sarcastically whispered and laughed at the clumsy Henri - soon no one attached any importance to his ugliness. He was affable, witty, cheerful, and incomparably talented. After Bonna dismissed all his students, he goes to Cormon, who painted large canvases on prehistoric subjects. The students loved him, he was a good teacher. Cormon Lautrec learned the secrets of painting and graphics, but he did not like his indulgence, he was merciless to himself.

Henri's mother fully shared her son's interests and admired him, but his father, Count Alphonse, did not at all like what the heir to the family did.

Drawing, he believed, may be one of the hobbies of an aristocrat, but should not become the main business of his whole life. The count demanded that his son sign the paintings with a pseudonym. Henri became more and more alien even for the family in which he grew up and was brought up, he called himself the “withered branch” of the family tree. Alphonse de Toulouse - Lautrec Monfat fully confirmed this by giving the birthright, which was supposed to be inherited by his son, his younger sister Alika. Henri began to sign the paintings with an anagram of his last name - Treklo.

In the summer of 1882, on their way to the south, where the countess still took her son for treatment, they stopped at their estate in Albi. There, Henri for the last time noted his height at the "wailing wall": one meter fifty-two centimeters. He was nearly eighteen years old, an age when most young men can think of nothing but the opposite sex. In this, Lautrec differed little from his peers - in addition to an ugly body, ruthless Nature endowed him with a tender, sensitive soul and a powerful masculine temperament. He fell in love for the first time as a child - with his cousin Jeanne d'Armagnac. Henri lay with a broken leg and waited for the girl to come to visit him. As he got older, Lautrec also learned the sensual side of love. His first woman was Marie Charlet - a young, thin, like a young man, model, completely innocent in appearance and depraved in her soul. She was brought to Henri by a friend in the workshop, the Norman Charles - Edouard Lucas, who believed that Lautrec would be cured of painful complexes when he knew a woman. Marie visited the artist several times, finding the connection with him piquant. But Henri soon refused her services - this "animal passion" was too far from his ideas about love. However, the relationship with the young model showed how strong his temperament was, and memories of sensual pleasures did not allow Lautrec, as before, to spend lonely evenings at work. Realizing that a worthy girl from a decent society is unlikely to reciprocate, he went to Montmartre - to prostitutes, cafeteria singers and dancers. Among the new hobby - street life in Montmartre, Henri did not feel like a cripple; life opened up to him in a new way.

Montmartre in the mid-1880s ... All Paris rushed here for entertainment. The halls of cafes and restaurants, cabarets and theaters were quickly filled with a motley audience and the holiday began ... Here their kings and queens, their rulers of thoughts, ruled. Among them, the first place was occupied by the coupletist Bruant, the owner of the restaurant " Elise - Montmartre". The recognized queen of Montmartre in those days was La Goulue - "Glutton" - that was the name of the sixteen-year-old Alsatian Louise Weber for her crazy passion for food.

He sat down at a table, ordered a drink, and then took out his sketchbook with pencils and, intently watching the frantic dance of the Alsatian, drew, trying to catch every movement of her body, every change in her expression. Her fresh, wrinkle-free skin, shining eyes, sharp nose, her legs, which she threw up high in the dance, foaming the lace of her skirts, the shamelessness with which she twirled her back, expressing a voluptuous impulse of passion with her whole being - all this Henri captured in his drawings. Next to La Goulue was her indispensable partner Valentin, whom the public nicknamed Boneless. The movements of this couple were so erotic and coveted that they could not but turn on the audience, and each performance of La Goulue and Valentin Beskostny was accompanied by a wild ovation.

In 1884, Henri came from Paris to visit his "poor holy mother," as the artist called her. After a few weeks, which he spent with his parents, Lautrec returned to the capital completely happy - his father agreed to give him money to buy his own workshop in Montmartre. He is a full-fledged inhabitant of Paris. For Lautrec Montmartre became a hospitable home, and its inhabitants - Montmartre actresses and singers, dancers, prostitutes and drunkards became his favorite young models, rethought heroines of the brightest, most impressive drawings, lithographs, posters, advertising posters and paintings. It was they who, despised by society, gave him tenderness, affection and warmth, which they gave him so generously, and which he so voluptuously craved. In many of Lautrec's works, there are scenes in brothels, their inhabitants, to whom he, a hereditary aristocrat, felt sympathy and understood like no one else. After all, this “humpbacked Don Juan”, like them, was an outcast.

In 1886, Lautrec met Van Gogh in the workshop of Cormon, painted his portrait in the manner of a new friend.

A rebellion against the teacher is brewing in the workshop. Lautrec joins his friends Anquetin, Bernard and Van Gogh. Now he is defending his identity. Arranges an exhibition of his drawings in Mirliton, some of them illustrate Bruant's songs. Vincent decides to have an exhibition of friends at a working restaurant. However, the common people did not accept innovative painting. And in 1888, Lautrec received an invitation to take part in the exhibition of the "Group of Twenty" in Brussels. Among the members of the group - Signac, Whistler, Anquetin. Lautrec is present at the opening day. Defending Van Gogh, he challenges the artist de Gru who insulted him to a duel; the duel was averted. Critics drew attention to the work of Lautrec, noting his hard drawing and evil wit.

Gradually, Montmartre invents something new, never ceasing to amaze. New establishments are emerging. In 1889, Joseph Oller announced the opening of the Moulin Rouge cabaret.

On the Boulevard de Clichy, the wings of the red cabaret windmill spun. In the evenings, in the noisy hall of the entertainment establishment, one wall of which was absolutely mirrored to create the illusion of space, it was not overcrowded - all of Paris was going to look at the brilliant Valentine and La Goulue, lured by the director " Moulin rouge from Elise. From that evening Toulouse - Lautrec became a frequent guest of this place. Everything that attracted and attracted so much in Elise and Moulin de la Galette was now concentrated in Oller's cabaret. Henri spent all his evenings at the Moulin Rouge, surrounded by his friends, drawing and constantly witty and joking, so that a casual visitor to the cabaret could assume that this wonderful freak was one of the local attractions.

Encouraged by success, Lautrec paints twenty canvases a year. His constant themes are prostitutes, cabaret dancers, portraits of friends. He broke with naturalism, he was not able to embellish reality, in his grotesque and irony - pain, awareness of the tragic side of life. In a large canvas "Dance in" Moulin rouge”he writes to the audience of the famous cabaret, his friends at the table, the famous dancer Valentin Beskostny, who is paired with one of the dancers in a quadrille. They said about the artist that he writes "the sorrow of laughter and the hell of fun."

In January 1891, before the start of the new season, Oller ordered Toulouse-Lautrec a poster advertising the Moulin Rouge. Of course, it should have cabaret stars that attract attention - Valentin and La Goulue "in the midst of a sparkling quadrille."

The advertising posters, which came out at the end of September and were a great success, were pasted all over Paris. Fiacres (hired carriages) with posters glued on drove around the city. This poster is one of the classic works of French Post-Impressionism. In the center of the poster is La Goulue, depicted in profile and dancing in front of the audience. He glorified the Moulin Rouge, and even more - the artist.

Montmartre took a special, and rather important, place in the life of Toulouse-Lautrec. Here he improves and draws plots for his paintings, here he feels at ease and free, here he finds respect and love. The inhabitants of the salon simply adored their regular and gave him their love. After La Goulue, the busty beauty Rosa with bright red hair reigned in his heart, then there were other beauties - “little Henri” in Montmartre, no one could resist her lovemaking. In Parisian visiting houses he is always warmly and friendly received, here he feels calm, paints local models in an intimate setting not intended for prying eyes: sleeping, half-dressed, changing clothes, at the toilet - with combs and basins, stockings and towels, cooking series of paintings and lithographs They» (« Elles»).

For a time he even lived in brothels. He did not hide where his house was, and, as if proud of it, he easily gave his address and laughed when someone was shocked. On the Rue Moulin, Lautrec was particularly inspired by the exclusive and sophisticated interiors. Even quite respectable ladies, mostly foreigners, came here to admire the decoration of the rooms. And everyone in Paris was talking about the incredible beauty of the inhabitants of this "temple of love."

The hostess of the institution, Madame Baron, made sure that Lautrec's workshop was comfortable, and then persuaded Toulouse-Lautrec to decorate the walls of the brothel with paintings he painted. Her wards, young and not very young, quenched his hunger for passion, and they did it with great willingness and tenderness, but “ No amount of money can buy this delicacy he said. On Sundays, Monsieur Henri played a game of dice, the winner had the honor of spending time with the artist. And when the wards of the tempters of love Madame Baron had days off, Lautrec observed the tradition, which he himself invented, to arrange evenings in the brothel, where the girls, dressed in transparent and very light-weight robes, waltzed in a noble manner with each other to the music of a mechanical piano. Watching the life of a brothel, Lautrec was amazed at how these weak and unfortunate creatures, caught in the trap of debauchery and immoral corruption of everything and everyone, tried to keep a tight mask on themselves.

In 1892, Lautrec exhibited nine paintings in Brussels with the Group of Twenty. He is appointed a member of the committee for hanging pictures at the Independents. The public calls his art shameless, the artists see him as a successor to Degas. Often, Lautrec turned the superiority of his models into ugliness, he was never noble and condescending to the models. In 1894, one of his main models was Yvette Guilbert, who was famous in those years as a cafeteria singer, who once called him a "genius of deformation." Yvette he painted many times. The artist also depicted the singer on the lid of a ceramic tea table. He tries different techniques, including stained glass. Suddenly he is fond of racers and cyclists and writes a large canvas "".

Yvette Gilbert just captivated him. When Lautrec first saw Guilbert on stage, he wanted to write a poster for the singer and, having done this, sent her a drawing. Yvette knew that she had a repulsive beauty, but she did not suffer at all about this, she was flirtatious and enjoyed good success with men and the public. The poster of Lautrec discouraged her somewhat - she saw herself completely different, not so ugly, but Guilbert understood that the sketch was a tribute to the sympathy and respect of an outstanding artist. She did not order a poster for Henri, although the artist himself, whom she had never seen before, only heard about him, interested her. "We'll come back to this topic, but for God's sake, don't make me look so scary!" she wrote to him. But Lautrec was not used to retreating so easily - he decided to release an album of lithographs dedicated to the singer. Once he paid her a visit - then Yvette first saw him. His ugliness at first stunned her, but looking into his expressive black eyes, Guilbert was subdued. Yvette remembered that day forever: she invited him to dine together, they talked a lot, and soon she was completely under the spell of Henri ... This meeting was followed by others, he came to her and painted, painted ... The sessions were stormy, the artist and his model often quarreled - it seemed to him that it was a fabulous pleasure to anger her.

Album « Yvette Guilbert"(sixteen lithographs) was published in 1894. The singer, and part-time model of Lautrec, treated him approvingly, but then her friends convinced her that she looked disgusting there and that the artist should have been punished by the offender in court for humiliated dignity and public insult.

However, numerous laudatory responses began to appear in the newspaper press, and Yvette had to come to terms with her merciless portrait painter. Perhaps now no one would remember that in Paris on Montmartre at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century such a singer sang - Yvette Guilbert, but history has preserved the memory of her thanks to him, a brilliant freak Henri Toulouse - Lautrec.

He glorified the dancer Jean Avril, whom he met in a restaurant " Jardin de Paris". In contrast to the absurd, harsh La Goulue, Jean was soft, feminine, "intelligent." This illegitimate daughter of a demi-monde lady and an Italian aristocrat had suffered as a child from her mother, a rude, perverted and unbalanced woman who vented all her failures on her daughter. Once, unable to bear the humiliation and beatings, Zhana ran away from home. Her solace was music and dance. She never sold herself and started romances only with those who could awaken warm feelings in her. Zhana understood art, distinguished by refinement of manners, nobility and some kind of spirituality. According to Henri, she was "like a teacher". In the drawings, Lautrec managed to convey her, as one of his friends put it, "the charm of depraved virginity." Jean, who highly appreciated Lautrec's talent, willingly posed for the artist and sometimes with pleasure played the role of the hostess in his workshop.

Gradually, the works of Toulouse-Lautrec were printed and sold throughout the country. The artist's works were exhibited at large exhibitions in France, Brussels and London. He became so famous that fakes under Lautrec began to appear on the markets, which meant success.

But fame did not change the artist's way of life in any way: he worked just as hard and had just as much fun, did not miss costume balls, premieres in theaters, or parties with his Montmartre friends. Lautrec lived as if he was afraid to miss something, not to be in time somewhere in this life - excitedly, feverishly, joyfully. "Life is Beautiful!" was one of his favorite exclamations. And only close friends knew what bitterness was hidden behind these actions and words. He also drank - a lot, but only very good and expensive drinks. He was convinced that high quality alcohol could not cause serious harm. Lautrec loved to mix different drinks, getting an unusual bouquet. He was the first in France to start making cocktails and got incredible pleasure from listening to the praise of his guests, who enthusiastically joined the new drinks. Who only then did not visit him, and all his guests knew that Lautrec was supposed to drink. His fellow students in the workshop of Cormon Anquetin and Bernard, and the young Van Gogh, who introduced him to Japanese art, and the insidious Valadon, the artist and model of Renoir, who seemed to be playing some kind of subtle game with Lautrec - either appeared in his life or disappeared ...

After some time, he no longer needed expensive fine liquors and cognacs - Lautrec learned to make do with simple cheap wine from a nearby shop. He drank more and worked less and less, and if earlier he made more than a hundred paintings a year, then in 1897 he painted only fifteen canvases. It seemed to friends that unrestrained drunkenness was destroying Lautrec as an artist. But he has not yet lost the ability to create masterpieces: these are portrait by Oscar Wilde 1896

Friends tried to distract him from alcohol addiction, took him to England, Holland, Spain, but he, having had enough of old art, admiring the canvases of Brueghel and Cranach, Van Eyck and Memling, El Greco, Goya and Velasquez, returned home and - set to the same. Henri became capricious, intolerant, sometimes simply unbearable. Inexplicable outbursts of anger, stupid antics, unjustified violence ... His already poor health was undermined by alcoholism and syphilis, which Red Rose “awarded” him long ago.

Lautrec began to suffer from insomnia, as a result of which - against the backdrop of endless drunkenness - he developed frightening hallucinations and delusions of persecution. His behavior became more and more inadequate, he was increasingly subjected to bouts of insanity. In the summer of 1897 he fired a revolver at imaginary spiders, in the autumn of 1898 it seemed to him that the police were chasing him on the street, and he hid from them with friends.

In 1899, "with a terrible attack of delirium tremens," Lautrec's mother placed Lautrec in the insane clinic of Dr. Semelen in Neuilly. Coming out of there after several months of treatment, he struggled to work, but something seemed to break in him.

In mid-April, Lautrec returned to Paris. Friends, seeing Henri, were shocked. “How has he changed! they said. Only a shadow remained of him! Lautrec barely moved, moving his legs with difficulty. It was clear that he was forcing himself to live. But sometimes it seemed that faith in the future again finds hope in him. He was especially pleased with the news that several of his paintings were sold at an auction in Drouot, and for a lot of money. Inspired by this event, Henri again felt a strong urge to draw. But - the last works seemed not to be his ... In three months, Lautrec sorted out everything that had gathered in his studio over the years of work, finished some canvases, affixed his signatures on what seemed to him a success ... Before leaving - he was going to spend that summer in Arashon and Tossa, places familiar to him from childhood, on the seashore - Henri brought perfect order to the workshop, as if he knew that he was not destined to return there again.

At the Orleans Station, he was seen off by old friends. Both they and Lautrec himself understood that this was probably their last meeting.

The sea air could not cure Henri. Doctors accompanied him with a statement that he had consumption, and in mid-August, Lautrec had a stroke. He lost weight, became deaf, moved with difficulty due to developing paralysis. Arriving to the seriously ill Lautrec, Countess Adele transported her son to the family castle in Malrome. In this mansion, surrounded by the care and love of his mother, Henri seemed to have returned to the vast world of childhood, joys, and hopes. He even tried to start drawing again, but his fingers no longer obeyed the call of his heart and could not hold the brush. Over time, paralysis fettered his entire unfortunate body, Lautrec could not even eat himself. There was always someone at his bedside: friends, mother or old nanny. The father, Count Alphonse, also visited, and did not recognize the artist in his son. When he entered the room Henri 1901

Toulouse-Lautrec's natural growing pains - "hopeless entanglement in narcissism" successfully developed into a strong confidence in his success on the foundation of the draftsman's talent. He was not afraid of any topic, any order, any size and any speed. Matisse's expression and kinematics of the body turned out to be the main arguments in the artist's paintings. The audacity of genetic talents was confirmed by the artistic discoveries that followed one after another of more and more new possibilities for shocking the public, which was easier and more successful to organize on leading the public to a dead end and on vulgarities. The French made vice a treat. The high society, which bought creativity, took the artistic riotousness of Bohemia for the norm of playfulness, asserting the status of real life. Lautrec, on the other hand, expresses the organic freedom of the pose, bringing its expressiveness to shocking. The curtain fell. Life Henri de Toulouse - Lautrec - Montfat broke off on the morning of September 9, 1901 at the age of thirty-seven, like Van Gogh. He was buried near Malrome in the cemetery of Saint - Andre - du Bois. Later, the Countess ordered that the remains of her son be transferred to Werdle.

Gradually, the works of Toulouse-Lautrec began to acquire the largest museums in the world - Toulouse-Lautrec became a classic. Despite this, Count Alphonse was still unwilling to admit that his son was a talented artist. He wrote to Henri's childhood friend, Maurice Joyayan, who was busy creating a house - the Lautrec Museum in Albi: "Just because the artist is no longer alive - even if it is my son - I cannot admire his clumsy work." And only in his suicide letter, in December 1912, the count confessed to Maurice: "You believed more in his talent than I did, and you were right ...".