Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
1864 - 1901
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draftsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the decadent and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an oeuvre of provocative images of modern life. He is important representative of Post-Impressionism and Art Nouveau.
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa was born in Albi, Tarn in the Midi-Pyrenees Region of France, the firstborn child of Comte Alphonse and Comtesse Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec. An aristocratic family that had recently fallen on hard times, the Toulouse-Lautrecs were still feeling the effects of the inbreeding of past generations. The Comte and Comtesse were first cousins, and Henri suffered from a number of congenital health conditions attributed to this tradition of inbreeding. A younger brother was born to the family on August 28, 1867, but died the following year.
At ages 13 and 14, Henri fractured both his thigh bones. The breaks did not heal properly, and his legs ceased to grow.
He immersed himself in his art. He became an important post-Impressionist painter, Art Nouveau illustrator, lithographer and recorded in his works many details of the late-19th century bohemian lifestyle in Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec also contributed a number of illustrations to the magazine Le Rire during the mid-1890s.
He often portrayed life at the Moulin Rouge and other Montmartre and Parisian cabaret and theaters, and, particularly, in the brothels that he frequented avidly. An alcoholic for most of his adult life, he was placed in a sanatorium shortly before his death. He died before his 37th birthday.
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