Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris explores the
artist’s enthusiastic participation in the celebrity culture of his day
and how, to a remarkable degree, he defined it for generations to
follow. In addition to his famous lithographic prints and posters, which
distilled the defining gestures, costumes and expressions of “les
stars” of the day into instantly recognizable images, the exhibition
features never-before-displayed early drawings and a selection of
paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec.
Works by his contemporaries, including
Pierre Bonnard, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent and James
Jacques Joseph Tissot, are also incorporated throughout the galleries,
as well as recently restored period films, music, instruments and
fashion accessories.
The exhibition is accompanied by an
illustrated catalogue produced
by MFA Publications and a range of public programming offered at the
Museum and the BPL’s Central Library and 25 neighborhood branches.
“We are proud to partner with the Boston Public Library to bring
together these two rich collections of work by Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec. It’s exciting to be able to bring to life the
spectacles of modern Paris, and offer the public unprecedented access to
works of art in new ways,” said Matthew Teitelbaum, Ann and Graham Gund
Director of the MFA. “This has been a true collaboration, and we’re
extremely grateful to all of our colleagues at the BPL.”
The MFA’s conservation team undertook the preparation and framing of
pieces from the BPL’s collection for the exhibition. Nine oversized
posters were also sent for extensive conservation treatment, framing and
digitization at the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) in
Andover; this work was jointly funded by the MFA and the Associates of
the Boston Public Library. Five of these posters are on view at the
Museum in Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris, while the remaining
four are displayed at the BPL’s Central Library in Copley Square.
Additionally, the BPL’s complete collection of more than 350 works by
Toulouse-Lautrec has been digitized and is available on
digitalcommonwealth.org.
“Boston Public Library is thrilled to take our partnership with the
Museum of Fine Arts to a new level, collaborating on this joint
exhibition featuring the works of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and making
them widely accessible to the public,” said David Leonard, President of
the Boston Public Library. “This is not just a superb example of
Boston’s cultural institutions working together, but also helps us
unlock our vast historical collections for the enjoyment of all. This
exhibition and its programming allow us to explore themes at the
intersection of art and celebrity across the centuries.”
Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris opens with a selection of key works by Toulouse-Lautrec, including the artist’s first poster: the large and dramatic
Moulin Rouge: La Goulue (1891,
Metropolitan Museum of Art). Commissioned by the infamous dance hall Le
Moulin Rouge, it marked Toulouse-Lautrec’s entry into the foray of
advertising and celebrity culture and set a new standard for poster
design, radically synthesizing artistic devices from a range of sources,
including shadow theater and Japanese woodblock prints.
The
introductory section also highlights
Eldorado: Aristide Bruant in his Cabaret (1892,
BPL), the first poster to include the self-designed monogram, HTL (for
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec), which the artist included on all of his
subsequent posters. The monogram essentially functioned as a logo and
linked Toulouse-Lautrec’s fame with the celebrities he depicted.
Ultimately, such prints and posters, which could be seen all over Paris,
established Toulouse-Lautrec’s reputation as one of the great
printmakers of the late 19th century.
“The exhibition addresses the roots of a major aspect of public life
today: celebrity culture and the power of images,” said Helen Burnham,
Pamela and Peter Voss Curator of Prints and Drawings. “It also offers a
remarkable opportunity to experience the depth and quality of Boston’s
holdings of works by Toulouse-Lautrec. Few cities could mount a show of
this nature without numerous outside loans. We have been able to put
together a focused perspective on a critical aspect of an innovative
artist’s career by combining two great collections and inviting the
participation of a handful of important nearby supporters.”
Following the introduction,
Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris is organized into five thematic sections:
A Creative Life,
Paris by Day and Night,
Behind the Scenes,
The Show and
The Stars.
A Creative Life acquaints visitors with Toulouse-Lautrec,
his artistic journey and his keen ability to record an impression with a
few quick strokes on paper. He began drawing as a boy, encouraged by
his father and uncles, all of whom were talented amateur artists. His
early studies—many of which are exhibited for the first time—focused on
horses and people, subjects that would fascinate him throughout his
life. After moving to Paris from the south of France in 1882, he studied
with academically trained painters, but soon became interested in the
avant-garde—especially the work of Edgar Degas,
whose
Racehorses at Longchamp (1871,
possibly reworked in 1874, MFA) is on view.
Three early mature
paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec are also featured, two of which are shown
together for the first time in many years:
the MFA’s
At the Café La Mie (about 1891)
and
The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon) (1887–89),
on rare loan for three months from the Harvard Art Museums.
The works
in this section illustrate the artist’s experimentation with a variety
of media, including lithography, which became one of his main vehicles
for expression. A lithographic stone used by Toulouse-Lautrec is shown
alongside two of the prints (or “impressions”) that it produced,
offering insight into the artist’s technique.
Paris by Day and Night explores the city’s changing
landscape during Toulouse-Lautrec’s lifetime. In the second half of the
19th century, old neighborhoods were razed to make way for new
buildings, department stores, grand boulevards, omnibus transportation
and public parks. By day, Paris bustled with fashionable residents,
while by night, it earned its title as the City of Lights, with new
forms of electric lightning and entertainment.
Excerpts from recently
restored films by the Lumière Brothers (courtesy of Institut Lumière)
show views of Paris around 1900, which are also depicted in paintings of
modern life by Pierre Bonnard, Mary Cassatt, Robert Henri and James
Jacques Joseph Tissot, as well as prints by Edgar Degas, Maxime Lalanne,
Auguste Lepère, Henri Rivière and Jacques Villon.
Additionally, this
section includes Toulouse-Lautrec’s advertising posters, which promoted a
variety of products, services and venues, from paper confetti and
bicycle chains to photography studios and literary magazines.
Behind the Scenes highlights
the Elles portfolio (1896,
BPL), one of the great achievements of Toulouse-Lautrec’s career. Shown
in its entirety and in incredible condition, the series chronicles with
unusual sensitivity the daily habits of women living in a Parisian
brothel. Toulouse-Lautrec himself lived in brothels for extended periods
of time, befriending the women who lived there and sketching them as
they engaged in mundane activities like bathing, grooming or eating
breakfast.
Additional lithographs on view in this section also depict
various moments—from intimate scenes to relatively public
scenarios—taking place in what Parisians described as a “half world”
(or
demi-monde) of sex workers, mistresses and courtesans in their city.
The Show immerses visitors in the nightlife of fin-de-siècle
Paris, with images of performers and song sheets for period music.
Among the highlights in this section are Toulouse-Lautrec’s depictions
of
Caudieux, the “human cannonball,”
and May Belfort, an Irish
songstress known for her signature baby-doll costume and black cat.
Also
on view are
John Singer Sargent’s
Rehearsal of the Pasdeloup Orchestra at the Cirque d’Hiver(about 1879–80, MFA)
and Pablo Picasso’s
Stuffed Shirts (Les Plastrons) (1900,
MFA), painted during the artist’s brief Toulouse-Lautrec-influenced
phase.
The soundtrack for this gallery features a soundtrack that
includes the famous
Can-Can, from
Orpheus in the Underworld, composed by Bedrich Smetana, Jacques Offenbach, Modest Mussorgsky and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
The exhibition culminates with
The Stars, an in-depth
exploration of six Montmartre celebrities who were made famous by
Toulouse-Lautrec: cabaret star Yvette Guilbert; actor, painter and
sculptor Sarah Bernhardt; Moulin Rouge dancer Jane Avril; opera
performer Marcelle Lender; nightclub owner and performer Aristide
Bruant; and dancer Loïe Fuller.
This section features popular works by
Toulouse-Lautrec,
including three rare impressions (two color
separations and a final proof) of
Le Divan Japonais (1893, MFA), which depicts Yvette Guilbert on stage and Jane Avril as a spectator;
Marcelle Lender (1895, MFA), one of his most technically complex lithographs;
and two versions of
Aristide Bruant in his Cabaret (1893,
MFA and BPL), one of his most successful and iconic poster designs.
Six
rare prints of Loïe Fuller (1893, MFA, BPL and Metropolitan Museum of
Art) are reunited in this gallery, each impression featuring a unique
combination of colors enhanced with gold or silver powder to mimic the
ever-changing visual effects of the dancer’s performances.
A recently
restored, hand-colored film by the Lumière Brothers (courtesy of
Institut Lumière) demonstrates the
Serpentine Dance, which was
invented by Fuller and performed by manipulating lightweight wands sewn
into the hem of a voluminous skirt to create a swirling mass of fabric.
The Stars also
includes a shadow theater produced to re-create the experience of
attending the 1900 World’s Fair; a kaleidoscopic card that creates
illusions of movement and changing colors; two “hold-to-light postcards”
that can be illuminated by visitors; and a case of chic accessories
from fin-de-siècle Paris.
The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue
Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris (April
2019, MFA Publications), written by curator Helen Burnham with
contributions by Mary Weaver Chapin, Curator of Prints and Drawings at
the Portland Art Museum, and Joanna Wendel, Morse Curatorial Research
Fellow in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the MFA. Lavishly
illustrated with reproductions of iconic images and rarely seen
sketches, the volume focuses on six performers depicted by
Toulouse-Lautrec—Yvette Guilbert, Jane Avril, Aristide Bruant, Marcelle
Lender, May Belfort and Loïe Fuller—and explores how they collaborated
with the artist in exploiting new media to create stardom.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril, 1899. Poster, color lithograph. Albert H. Wiggin Collection. Boston Public Library.
Also:
Featured image is an 1895 lithograph from the catalog to MFA Boston's current exhibition, Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris,
organized around six of the artist's legendary muses of the bohemian
cabaret world. Titled "Marcelle Lender," the stage name of Anne-Marie
Marcelle Bastien, this print captures one of the most beloved stars of
Paris's light opéra bouffe. According to Joanna Wendel, Lautrec's
interest in Lender blossomed into an obsession when he saw her perform a
Spanish-style bolero in the light opera Chilpéric that same
year.
"The production was a striking success, running for more than a
hundred performances and drawing praise for its lavish set and costume
designs." Wendel quotes a letter from Lautrec to French writer Romain
Coolus: "I come strictly in order to see Lender's back… Look at it
carefully; you seldom see anything so magnificent. Lender's back is
sumptuous." She concludes by speculating that Lautrec may have drawn
inspiration for the composition from Japanese color woodcut portraits of
courtesans, noting the unusually prominent Japanese-style monogram in
the upper left corner. continue to blog
