HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901)
Exit day, 1893 Oil on cardboard. Monogram stamp lower left. H: 46.5 cm W: 32.5 cm "Lautrec brings new means of interpretation to art; the line alone serves him to fix his thoughts. In his drawing there is nothing useless or irrational, everything what is essential is there; the people are always there within their framework; the discouragement which overwhelms them, the misery which tortures them, the desires which shake them, can be read there indelibly engraved" Ernest Maindron Henri Toulouse Lautrec is one of the greatest representatives of Montmartre of his time, where he had set up his workshop, he never ceased to sublimate the bohemian spirit of the district, through its artists (Aristide Bruant), its light morals (the dancers of the Moulin Rouge) through its advertising posters. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec created his first poster in 1891 for the Moulin Rouge, a creation which immediately propelled him to the forefront and contributed to changing the outlook on the art of the poster and no longer considering it as a minor art. Within his works, the characters are often grotesque thanks to the dark lines specific to the artist which surround the figures allowing them to be detached from the background. He advocates drawing and sticks to the essentials thanks to a few significant elements. Here, the work leaves the mystery hovering, from behind this character is hidden from us, the artist only lets us “glimpse” a movement of the cape, which creates the movement of the drawing giving it a ghostly and mysterious effect. . A work of all possibilities where the scene lives and moves before the eyes and thanks to the imagination of the spectator"s mind.