Henri Toulouse Lautrec characteristic features of creativity. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paintings

“What is Montmartre? Nothing. What should it be? Everyone!”
Rodolphe Saly, owner of the Cha Noir cabaret

"Attention! Here comes the whore. But don't think that this is some random girl. First class product! — broke at the entrance Aristide Bruant, famous crooner and the owner of the newly opened Mirliton cabaret. Henri, he was only 24 years old, watched with admiration Bruant and the bohemians who crowded here every evening.

"Elise-Montmartre". 1888. Photo: Public Domain

"Thank you. I had a wonderful evening. Finally, for the first time in my life, they called me an old brat to my face,” one of the avid visitors, a division general, spoke about “Mirliton.” A sign soon appeared above the entrance: “Those who like to be insulted come here.” By ten o'clock in the evening it was impossible to get inside - the cabaret was overcrowded. Parties took place every day, the noise did not subside until two in the morning.

This building used to house a cabaret. Rodolphe Saly, one of the most famous figures Montmartre. However, Sali decided to move to Laval Street, away from the poor idlers and outright thugs. Nevertheless, his updated Sha-Noir was still popular.

The Moulin de la Galette also drew full houses, where it was always dark and dirty, and on Mondays there was an almost obligatory stabbing. "Elise-Montmartre" is a more decent establishment, with professional dancers and those on duty in the back rows Commissioner of Police Cutla du Rocher. They called him “Daddy Chastity” here.

At first, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec loved Elise-Montmartre most of all, but when Mirliton opened in place of the pretentious, in his opinion, Cha Noir, the young artist became a regular there and soon became friends with Bruant.

“These idiots understand absolutely nothing about my songs,” Bruan told a friend. “They don’t know what poverty is, and from birth they are swimming in gold.” I take revenge on them by insulting them, and they laugh until they cry, thinking that I am joking. But in fact, I often think about the past, about the humiliations I experienced, about the dirt that I had to see. All this comes up in a lump in the throat and pours out on them in a stream of abuse.”

“Marcella Lander dancing a bolero at the Schilperic cabaret,” 1895. Photo: Public Domain

Toulouse-Lautrec also bathed in gold as a child. He came from a distinguished line of generals and commanders, but he also had reasons to hate the establishment. Bruant's Mirliton became his new home. “Quiet, gentlemen! I've arrived great artist Toulouse-Lautrec with one of his friends and some pimp I don’t know,” Henri was loudly greeted at Mirliton.

"Little Treasure" of Bosc Castle

Toulouse-Lautrec moved to Montmartre at the age of 19. He left behind his father, pious mother, aristocratic balls, incomplete higher education and luxurious family estates. At home, Henri was called “Little Treasure”, cherished and cherished.

He was the most active child in the family and could not imagine better activities than hunting and horse riding. In this sense, he completely coincided with his father - a fearless officer, famous not only for military, but also for romantic victories. Free time Count Alphonse devoted to drinking and eccentric antics. It didn’t cost him anything to go out for a walk in the armor of a medieval knight. Neighbors and his wife considered the count eccentric; Henri adored his father and looked up to him.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

At the same time, “Little Treasure” could not help but notice his mother’s worries. In my time Countess Adele I considered myself a real lucky woman, but now I was clearly tired of my husband’s infidelities. Formally, Henri’s parents separated when he was four years old, immediately after the death of their youngest son Richard. However, then the count returned home several times, and the countess was afraid to contradict him.

At the age of 14, Henri fell from a horse and broke his left femur. For the next 40 days, the teenager did not get out of bed, the bones fused with difficulty, and recovery lasted a year and a half. But as soon as Henri was able to lead an active lifestyle, he climbed onto the horse again and fell again, this time breaking his right hip.

After this, Henri did not grow a centimeter, and until his death his height was one and a half meters. What was much worse was that his body continued to develop, and over time, “Little Treasure” turned into a disproportionate monster with a huge head and short legs. Until the end of his days he walked with a cane.

For the mother this became a tragedy, but for the father it brought only disappointment and irritation: why does he need a son with whom you can’t even shoot a partridge? Count Alphonse believed that his first-born son had been taken away from him and no longer perceived Henri as his son. Then everyone believed that Henri was just a weak and awkward teenager; at that time they did not know about hereditary osteogenesis and genetic diseases of children of close relatives. Henri's parents were cousins.

The mother continued to love and support her son, but she knew that for the snobs from the aristocratic circle, Henri would become an object of ridicule. The daring of fierce battles and ornate ballroom steps are valued here.

Henri himself understood what was happening, although he tried not to show it. He himself was the most ironic about his ugliness - a preemptive strike, because one way or another someone else would make a cruel joke. He loved to go hunting with his father, and he realized that now only painting was left in his life.

Having passed his matriculation exams and successfully studied in several art workshops, by the age of 19, young Toulouse-Lautrec realized that the time had come to start his own life.

The wicked charm of Montmartre

Lautrec settled with friends - Rene And Lily Grenier at rue Fontaine, 19 bis. Lily was very popular, loved by artists, musicians and entrepreneurs. Henri also fell in love with her, although he had the tact to restrain himself. Lily most likely had no idea about this, and they became close friends.

"In the salon on the Rue de Moulins." 1894. Photo: Public Domain

In Grenier's company, Lautrec was the ringleader; he willingly participated in all the entertainment that Lily came up with. Henri was known as a master small talk and invariably made an impression on the assembled guests. Together with his friends, Henri often went to the cabaret, where he also became the life of the party. Lautrec also became a regular at the brothel on Steinkerk Street.

Lautrec no longer had any illusions - he didn’t want to go to the dance floor. Every evening, Henri ordered glass after glass and drew everyone he met - on napkins, scraps of paper, charcoal, and pencil. Literally everything was used. Drawing was intoxicating young man no less wine. “I can drink without fear, because, alas, I can’t fall very far!” - he joked.

The attentive eye of the artist noticed at first glance all the features of the “target”; Henri could express them with a single line. He painted drunken poets and hopeless prostitutes, famous journalists and writers, representatives of the world and demi-monde. Lautrec painted everyone indiscriminately - he was interested in personality, he depicted character, not appearance.

"Worthless." 1891. Photo: Public Domain

In brothels, Lautrec met people who no longer had anything to hide or lose. For him, who grew up among snobs, the scammers, pimps and prostitutes in the smoky halls of the Elise-Montmartre, Moulin de la Galette and Mirliton were a breath of clean air.

Mirliton, meanwhile, flourished. Bruant earned 50 thousand francs a year (about €3.5 million in today's money). The whole of Montmartre gathered here, and street prostitutes hid during street raids. On Fridays, parties were held here for a sophisticated audience - entrance cost 12 times more.

"Glutton" from "Moulin Rouge"

In October 1889, Montmartre was buzzing - extravagant businessman Joseph Oller announced that the Moulin Rouge will open on the site of the Rennes Blanche, which was demolished four years ago. All the revelers of Paris came to the opening, including Prince Trubetskoy And Comte de La Rochefoucauld. Toulouse-Lautrec couldn’t pass by either.

One of the walls of the huge hall was mirrored. The room was brightly illuminated by ramps and chandeliers, and glass balls hung everywhere. The girls on stage danced a square dance, and the already famous La Goulue, nicknamed “The Glutton,” became the prima dancer at the Moulin Rouge.

She was 23 years old, she had already conquered Montparnasse and became the main star of the Moulin de la Galette. The girl appeared to the public as an arrogant and arrogant woman who had tried almost everything in life. At the end of the performance, she did not bow, silently turned around and, swaying her hips in black skirt five meters wide, went behind the scenes. La Goulue knew that hundreds of men's eyes were eagerly following her delicious legs. “Would you like to treat the lady?” - this is how every conversation she had began when she went down to the hall.

Among La Goulue's admirers was Lautrec. The Moulin Rouge contained everything he loved, and from the very first evening Henri became a regular guest here. He would start the evening at the Mirliton, then stop by the bar on the way to Cha Noir, and finally end the evening at the Moulin Rouge. He did not forget about the brothels, which he visited with the diligence of a good schoolboy.

“La Goulue with two friends at the Moulin Rouge,” 1892. Photo: Public Domain

Joseph Oller had heard a lot about the famous artist. He sought to make the Moulin Rouge even more famous and for this he wanted to hang bright and unusual posters around the city. The advertising poster for the opening of the Moulin Rouge was drawn by recognized master Jules Cheret, but the 55-year-old master depicted a cabaret with fluttering Pierrots and angels. Oller needed something brighter and more vicious.

Lautrec agreed to Oller's proposal instantly. In the center of his first poster was La Goulue. Minimal expressive means the artist was able to convey all the notes of the desired image - a smoky room, a crowd of onlookers whose gazes are turned to La Goulue, her always distant expression and flirtatious, provocative poses.

Henri felt that he could realize himself as an artist in advertising. Yes, compared to the paintings of the Impressionists, their deep analysis of light and shadow, deep feelings and fleeting sensations, cabaret posters are a low genre. But there were no rules here, and Lautrec could paint as he saw fit.

The La Goulue posters hung all over the Boulevard Clichy worked; the Moulin Rouge was sold out every evening. The style chosen by Lautrec was perfect. He portrayed simple images, subtly noticing the psychology of personality in them. On his posters, people became understandable and easily readable characters. Henri's posters were sincere and truthful - they depicted exactly what awaited the visitor outside the cabaret doors.

“Moulin Rouge, La Goulue” 1891. Photo: Public Domain

Oller did not have time to count the profits; La Goulue became the face and soul of Moulin Rouge. Cabaret, in turn, took central place V nightlife Montmartre, which became the only place in Paris that was worth going there in the 19th century.

Lautrec was also doing well. His large-scale paintings were exhibited among activists of the Brussels G20, they were highly appreciated Edgar Degas. The artist often went to the theater, where, together with the Grenier spouses, he threw shoes at the actors if they, in their opinion, played poorly. Lautrec spent several weeks on the yacht Cocorico in the Gulf of Arcachon. Henri lived frivolously and did not deny himself anything. People found out about the artist; it was an undoubted success.

A complex freak with a disproportionate body, he always trusted the opinions of others more than his own. That is why he was happy to hear praise from his teachers, that is why he wanted to exhibit with the Impressionists, and that is why he was glad to become a famous artist - to realize himself in the only field available to him.

In total, Lautrec created more than three hundred posters for the Moulin Rouge. Among the public, he was no less famous than La Goulue herself, and this could not help but flatter Henri, whom his own father had once abandoned.

Aristocrat's Curse

Lautrec did not forget about his illness for a second and believed that its cause was his own awkwardness. He did not mince his words and was sometimes known as a cynic among the public. However, those close to him understood that behind his tough and impudent nature was hiding a frightened child, a “Little Treasure.”

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Portrait by Giovanni Boldini. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

He hated his father and often drew caricatures of him. At the same time, Henri loved his mother, but tried not to catch her eye, so as not to remind her of his ugliness.

Walking in the evenings, Lautrec could shout to the whole street that that girl over there would give herself to him for a couple of francs. However, friends - primarily Lily Grenier - knew that he was afraid of ridicule, and rudeness - defensive reaction. Although the artist was constantly surrounded by friends, drinking buddies and prostitutes, deep down he remained lonely and tried with all his might to displace dark thoughts with alcohol.

In February 1899, after another attack of delirium tremens, Lautrec was sent to prison for two months. psychiatric clinic. Henri's health was already undermined by syphilis - he became infected from the red-haired Rose, a regular visitor to the Elise-Montmartre.

After treatment, Lautrec went to the Atlantic coast and in April 1901 returned to Paris, emaciated and completely weakened. Alcohol flowed like a river through the streets of Montmartre, and the artist was not going to ignore these turbulent currents.

An unhealthy lifestyle continued to undermine Lautrec. Two months later, his body could not stand it anymore, and he left Paris again. A stroke that occurred in August paralyzed half of his body. Henri gave up and asked his mother to take him to her castle near Bordeaux. In this castle, in the arms of his mother, he died on September 9. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was 36 years old.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa, Count Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa) - great French impressionist, post-impressionist artist. Born November 24, 1864 in Albi - died September 9, 1901 at Malromet Castle, Gironde.

Was born future artist in an aristocratic family. His parents were real counts. Very famous tragic story, which happened to the artist at the age of 13 and 14. When he was 13 years old, he accidentally broke the femur of his left leg while getting up from a chair; At the age of 14, after falling into a ditch, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec broke his right leg. After this, 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 about his shortcomings with a great sense of self-irony. After Henri left in 1871 native land and moved to Paris, his life changed dramatically and forever.

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

Still, the problem with his legs and his height of 152 cm could not give him real happiness in life. Despite his efforts, many people laughed at his shortcomings, romance novels ended in a break. Art critics often treated his paintings poorly. As a result of all this, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec led a riotous lifestyle, drank a lot and died of alcoholism before he was 37 years old. The glory of the great post-impressionist artist of France and world name came to him several years after his death.

Artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paintings:

Reading room at Melroom Castle

Reading newspaper in the garden

Gypsy de Richepin

Girl in a corset

Jeanne Avril

Cabaret Japanese Sofa

Milliner

The beginning of the quadrille at the Moulin Rouge

Dance lessons at the Moulin Rouge

Portrait of the artist Emil Bernard

The year 1864 went down in history as the year the First International was created in London. The labor movement was raising its head, the Danish War was going on in Europe and Civil War in USA. In France, Le Chapelier's Law prohibiting strikes and workers' coalitions, adopted by the Constituent Assembly of France in June 1791, was repealed.

In such turbulent times, Count Henri-Marie-Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec de Montfat was born - the future great artist who became famous far beyond the borders of his country.

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec had the good fortune to be born into a family belonging to the oldest family in France. This is a count family that descends from the Viscounts of Lautrec. In the XIV-XVII centuries. the head of this family bore the title of Viscount Monfat. At the end of the 17th century. Lautrec-Monfat changed their surname to Toulouse-Lautrec.

The Toulouse-Lautrec family was distinguished by its education and special reverence for art. Perhaps this circumstance helped Henri survive terrible tragedy that happened to him in childhood, and determine his future. Thanks to this choice, this article appeared.

In May 1878, at the age of 13, Henri breaks the neck of his femur. right leg. A year later, the boy breaks his left leg when he falls into a ditch. After this event, his legs stopped growing, and the young man remained disabled forever. - “Just think! I would never have started painting if my legs were a little longer.” – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec joked more than once.

A physical defect prevented young Henri from going to military service, as was customary among men in their family. It was then that he decided to become an artist. He draws a lot, and his talent is growing so rapidly that the skill of his former teacher, Master Prensto, was no longer enough. Henri moves to Paris in anticipation creative growth. Here he ends up with the then famous portrait painter Leon Bonna. Henri signs his first works with the pseudonym “Treklo”.

This is how he ends up in Montmartre. And Montmartre completely captures him. From this moment on, Henri becomes part of Montmartre, and Montmartre becomes part of Henri. Here Count Toulouse-Lautrec moves from high society to the world of bohemia, and it was in this world, communicating with people who create art, that he developed his own unique style, where line is important, and grotesque decorativeness does not hurt the eye, but, on the contrary, gently combines with subtlety and grace of images. One has only to look at the portraits created by the master to feel the psychologism and uniqueness of Lautrec’s controversial style. At first he imitates the then fashionable Impressionists, but then he finds his own way. The momentary impression is no longer enough for him. He is looking for ways to make his works deeper, to show the very essence of the world he depicts, be it nature or man. That's why it would seem unnecessary decorative works Toulouse-Lautrec, again and again attract our gaze, forcing us to look into the very soul of his characters.

Most likely, this is why the artist tries to paint unsleek high-society beauties and handsome men. He is attracted to simple, and even sometimes vicious people, with a broken destiny. In them the artist finds a reflection of the living world, beautiful in its uniqueness.

He paints dancers and prostitutes, cooks and laundresses. They are feminine and lively, without a shadow of falsehood or artificial gloss. And so beautiful.

At the same time, Toulouse-Lautrec wrote posters for the cabaret “Moulin Rouge”, “Black Cat” and “Divan Japonet” and other nightlife establishments in Paris. In total, he wrote about thirty posters, each of which is a real masterpiece. The artist, who knew the spirit of Parisian nightlife very well, in his posters conveys the momentary feeling of a carefree holiday, and at the same time, they sense the atmosphere of subtle flirtation and light intrigue characteristic of such establishments. But as a master of post-impressionism, he knew how to do this perfectly. That is why the posters created by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec are now perceived by us with the same interest and admiration as his portraits and other paintings.

It’s only in the last two years of his life, as if anticipating the end of the fun, that the artist increasingly uses dark tones in his works. With each picture, the feeling of sadness grows, the anticipation of saying goodbye to the world that he loved so much. In the spring of 1901, Henri suffered paralysis of his legs as a result of a stroke. And on September 9, at the age of 37, he dies.

And only many years after his death did he receive recognition from critics who did not favor him at all during his lifetime. During his short creative life, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec created 737 paintings, 275 watercolors, 363 engravings and posters, 5084 drawings, several ceramics and stained glass.

The online magazine "Area of ​​Culture" held a vote for the best design theater poster Veliky Novgorod among those published in OK magazine. The play poster received the most votes" A little prince", which took place today, April 29, at the Novgorod Regional Philharmonic. The author of the poster is Ksenia Inozemtseva. Congratulations!

Paintings by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec- these are prostitutes and actresses, cancan, jesters and dancers. The work of Toulouse Lautrec is the legacy of a true impressionist artist who painted life as it is.

If you can characterize paintings by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec in one word - that word will be “cabaret”. It is the artists, interiors, whores and cabaret regulars that are depicted a little less than in all the artist’s paintings.

You won't see angels fluttering around the Madonna here. Like most impressionists, Henri depicted reality without embellishment, focusing on individuality. Lautrec rather emphasized the peculiar features of nature than idealized it, like academic artists.

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Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, the artist's work.

Lautrec's work is distinguished by its brevity and deep psychologism. Henri was not particularly interested in the correctness of anatomical proportions, like academic artists, or color and light components, like other impressionists. He does not have the same color analysis as Monet. What is present in the paintings of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec is the character of the character, the mood, even a certain grotesqueness of the image. With precise expressive strokes and lines, Lautrec wonderfully reflects the character of a person, his emotional condition. It is not for nothing that he is called a master of sketching and psychological portrait.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, paintings by the artist with titles, characters.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec's paintings depict characters who are no less interesting than the works themselves. For example, La Goulue (glutton) - famous dancer cabaret "Moulin Rouge", which used to drink from the glasses of visitors and treat themselves at their expense. “Queen of Montmartre” - that’s what they called her. She ended her life no less tragically than Toulouse Lautrec. Alcohol broke her; at the end of her life, La Goulue lived in poverty, earning food and booze by selling matches and cigarettes.

Jane Avril, also a cancan dancer, is the complete opposite of La Goulle. A refined, melancholic nature, who, through the twists and turns of fate, ended up in a cabaret. An outcast among her colleagues, who called her "Crazy Jane." Avril became close friend artist and often posed for him in his studio.

Yvette Guilbert, actress whose artsy, original image Henri was so impressed. Red Rose, a girl of easy virtue, is the same one who infected him with syphilis. Thousands of them.

Posters by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec.

Personally, I like Henri’s graphics even more than his scenic paintings. Posters of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec They did very well what they were intended for - they advertised the glitz and vice of the Parisian demimonde, alcohol, vice and the cancan. It was the posters that brought the artist the desired fame. Despite the fact that Henri wrote more than dozens of posters, it is quite difficult to find them on the Internet, because particularly “smart” individuals confuse them with the graphics of another famous artist— Jules Cheret (a real poster monster, by the way, also a very interesting artist).

Only next to clowns, acrobats, dancers and prostitutes did Henri de Toulouse feel like he belonged. Contemporaries did not accept the artist’s work. Having natural talent and not being constrained by funds, Toulouse-Lautrec could get 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 drawn hairs), an emphasized, caricature-like, grotesque manner of conveying the facial features and plasticity of the characters, an abundance of movement and vivid emotions - these are the main characteristics of his style.

On November 24, 1864, in the city of Albi, in the ancient family castle of the Counts of Toulouse Lautrec, a boy was born, who was named Henri de Toulouse - Lautrec. Lautrec's mother, née Tapier de Seleyrand, Countess Adele, and Count Alphonse de Toulouse - Lautrec - Monfat, the artist's father, belonged to the highest circles of the aristocracy in France. The parents treated little Henri with particular care; in him they saw the successor of the family, the heir to one of the most significant families in the country. Count Alphonse imagined how his son would accompany him on horseback rides around the count's grounds and on falconry trips. WITH 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, bringing joy to his loved ones. WITH light hand one of Lautrec Jr.’s grandmothers was called in the family “ Little Treasure" Cheerful, lively, attentive and inquisitive, with lively dark eyes, he delighted everyone who saw him. At three years old, he required a pen to sign his name. They objected to him that he could not write. “Well, let it be,” Henri replied, “I’ll draw a bull.”

Childhood is considered happy times In human life. But this happiness was overshadowed by drama or even tragedy for Henri. Born with poor health, he was often sick, grew slowly, and until the age of five his fontanel did not heal. The Countess was worried about her boy and blamed herself first of all for his illnesses: after all, her husband was her cousin, and children in related marriages are often born unhealthy. When her second son, Richard, born two and a half years after Henri, died at just over eleven months old, Adele was finally convinced that her marriage was a mistake. And it’s not just the children’s illnesses - the pious woman gave her husband a lot, but over time they 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 betrayals, 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 she now 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 from then on, all her attention, all her love was given to Henri.

Count Alphonse loved aristocratic entertainment - hunting, horse riding, 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 little son to the studio of his friend, the artist Rene Princesteau, with whom Henri soon became friends. Princeto was not only an animal painter, he was a dexterous horseman, a lover of hound hunting and racing.

With great knowledge of the matter, he painted horses, dogs, hunting scenes, and from under his brush came real portraits of animals - 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 Princeteau created his paintings, and then he himself took a pencil and on a sheet of paper tried to leave a clearly visible and bright trace of everything that caught his eye: dogs, horses, birds. He was good at it, and Princeteau couldn't help but admit that the boy definitely had talent.

In Paris, where the Lautrec family moved in 1872, Henri was assigned to the Lyceum. It grows very slowly; the smallest among his peers, receives the nickname “Baby”. The margins of his notebooks were filled with drawings much faster than the pages with letters and numbers.

Often missing classes due to constant illness, 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 was increasingly worried about his health: doctors suspected he had bone tuberculosis - Henri was already ten years old, and he was still very small. The wall, against which all the cousins ​​in their estate noted their height in gradations and which 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 stand up, leaning awkwardly on his stick, without the help of which he no longer had the strength to move, he fell and broke the femoral neck of his left leg. And having barely recovered from a previous serious injury, a little over a year later, Henri stumbled while walking and broke the neck of his right hip... The parents, full of despair, did not lose hope for 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 widely known doctors came to Henri, and he was taken to the most expensive resort places. Soon the illness dormant in his body made itself felt in full force. Some doctors classified Lautrec's disease as a group of polyepiphyseal dysplasias. According to others, the reason vertically challenged Henri had mild osteopetrosis (painful thickening of the bone).

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

The figure on “childish legs” with “childish hands” looked very ridiculous. The charming child turned into a real freak. Henri tried to look in the mirror as little as possible - after all, apart from his large, searingly black eyes, there was nothing attractive left in his appearance. The nose became thick, the protruding lower lip hung over the sloping chin, and the hands of the short arms grew disproportionately huge. And the words that the deformed mouth uttered were distorted by a lisp, sounds jumped one after another, he swallowed syllables and, while talking, splashed with saliva. Such tongue-tiedness, coupled with the existing defect of the musculoskeletal system, did not at all contribute to the development spiritual harmony Henri. Fearing the ridicule of others, Lautrec I learned to make fun of myself and my own ugly body, without waiting for others to start making fun and ridicule. This self-defense technique was used by this amazing and courageous man, and this technique worked. When people met Lautrec for the first time, 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, you had to study. The painter Leon Bonnat was then very famous in Paris, and Toulouse-Lautrec signed up for courses with him. Lautrec believes all the teacher’s comments and tries to destroy everything original in himself. Only in the first days did his classmates whisper sarcastically and laugh at the clumsy Henri - soon no one attached any importance to his ugliness. He was friendly, witty, cheerful, and incredibly talented. After Bonna dismissed all his students, he moved on to Cormon, who painted large canvases on prehistoric subjects. The students loved him, he was good teacher. From Cormon, Lautrec learned the secrets of painting and graphics, but he did not like his condescension, 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 was doing.

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

In the summer of 1882, on the way to the south, where the Countess was still taking her son for treatment, they stopped at their estate in Albi. There, Henri noted his height for the last time at the “Weeping Wall”: one meter and fifty-two centimeters. He was almost eighteen years old - an age when most young men cannot think about anything other than the opposite sex. In this, Lautrec differed little from his peers - in addition to an ugly body, ruthless Nature endowed him with a gentle, sensitive soul and a powerful masculine temperament. He first fell in love 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 grew older, Lautrec learned the sensual side of love. His first woman was Marie Charlet - a young, thin, youthful model, completely innocent in appearance and depraved in her soul. She was brought to Henri by a friend from the workshop, the Norman Charles - Edouard Lucas, who believed that Lautrec would be cured of his painful complexes when he knew a woman. Marie came to 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 was unlikely to reciprocate his feelings, he went to Montmartre - to prostitutes, cafe singers and dancers. Among the new hobby - street life in Montmartre, Henri did not feel like a cripple; life opened up to him from a new side.

Montmartre in the mid-1880s... All of Paris flocked 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 Bruan, the owner of the restaurant " Elise – Montmartre" The recognized queen of Montmartre in those days was La Goulue - “The Glutton” - that’s how sixteen-year-old Alsatian Louise Weber was nicknamed for her crazy passion for food.

He sat down at a table, ordered a drink, and then took out his sketchbook with pencils and, constantly watching the frantic dance of the Alsatian, he drew, trying to catch every movement of her body, every change in the expression of her face. Her fresh, wrinkle-free skin, sparkling eyes, sharp nose, her legs, which she threw high in the dance, foaming the lace of her skirts, the shamelessness with which she twirled her butt, expressing with her whole being a voluptuous outburst of passion - Henri captured all this 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 desirable that they could not help but turn on the audience, and every performance of La Goulue and Valentin Beskostny was accompanied by wild applause.

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, reinterpreted heroines of the bright, most impressive drawings, lithographs, posters, advertising posters and paintings. It was they, despised by society, who gave him the tenderness, affection and warmth that they so generously gave him and which he so voluptuously craved. Many of Lautrec’s works depict scenes in brothels, their inhabitants, for whom he, a hereditary aristocrat, felt sympathy and understood like no one else. After all, this “hunchbacked Don Juan,” like them, was an outcast.

In 1886, Lautrec met Van Gogh in Cormon's studio and painted his portrait in the manner of a new friend.

A revolt against the teacher is brewing in the workshop. Lautrec joins his friends Anquetin, Bernard and Van Gogh. Now he defends his identity. He organizes an exhibition of his drawings at Mirliton, some of them illustrate Bruant’s songs. Vincent decides to organize an exhibition of friends in a working restaurant. However, ordinary people did not accept innovative painting. And in 1888, Lautrec received an invitation to take part in the G20 exhibition in Brussels. Among the group members are Signac, Whistler, Anquetin. Lautrec is present at the opening day. Defending Van Gogh, he challenges the artist de Groux, who insulted him, to a duel; the duel was averted. Critics took notice of Lautrec's work, noting his harsh drawing and wicked wit.

Gradually, Montmartre invents new things, never ceasing to surprise. New establishments are appearing. In 1889, Joseph Oller announced the opening of the Moulin Rouge cabaret.

On Boulevard Clichy the wings of the red cabaret mill began to spin. In the evenings, the noisy hall of the entertainment establishment, one wall of which was completely mirrored to create the illusion of space, was crowded - all of Paris gathered here to look at the brilliant Valentin and La Goulue, lured away by the director. Moulin rouge" from "Elise". From that evening, Toulouse-Lautrec became a frequent visitor to this place. Everything that was so attractive and attractive in “Eliza” 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 making wisecracks and jokes, so that someone who happened to enter the cabaret could assume that this wonderful freak was one of the local attractions.

Encouraged by his success, Lautrec painted 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 there is pain, awareness of the tragic side of life. In the large canvas "Dance in" Moulin rouge“he writes the audience of the famous cabaret, his friends at the table, the famous dancer Valentin Beskostny, performing a square dance together with one of the dancers. They said about the artist that he paints “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 feature the attention-grabbing cabaret stars - 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 posted all over Paris. Fiacres (hire carriages) with posters taped to them drove around the city. This poster is one of classical works French Post-Impressionism. In the center of the poster is La Goulue, depicted in profile and dancing in front of the audience. He glorified both the Moulin Rouge and, even more, the artist.

Montmartre occupied a special, and rather the most important, place in the life of Toulouse - Lautrec. Here he improves and draws subjects for his paintings, here he feels light and free, here he finds respect and love. The inhabitants of the salon simply adored their regular and showered him with their love. After La Goulue, the busty beauty Rose with bright red hair reigned in his heart, then there were other beauties - “little Henri” in Montmartre, no one could resist her love caresses. In Parisian dating 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 some time he even lived in brothels. He did not hide where his home was, and, as if proud of it, he easily gave his address and laughed when it shocked someone. On the Rue Moulin, Lautrec was especially inspired by the exclusive and sophisticated interior. 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 owner of the establishment, 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 charges, young and not so young, quenched his hunger for passion, and they did it with great willingness and tenderness, and yet “ no money can buy this delicacy", he said. On Sundays, Monsieur Henri played a game of dice, and the winner had the honor of spending time with the artist. And when the wards of Madame Baron's temptresses of love had a weekend, Lautrec followed the tradition, which he himself had invented, of organizing evenings in the brothel, where the girls, dressed in transparent and very lightly woven clothes, waltzed in a noble manner with each other to the music of a mechanical piano. Observing the life of the brothel, Lautrec was amazed at how these weak and unfortunate creatures, caught in the trap of depravity and immoral corruption of everything and everyone, tried to maintain a tense 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 paintings at the Independents. The public calls his art shameless, artists see him as a successor to Degas. Lautrec often turned the superiority of his models into ugliness; he was never noble and condescending towards his models. In 1894, one of his main models was the then famous cafe singer Yvette Guilbert, who once called him a “genius of deformation.” He drew Yvette 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 becomes interested in racing cyclists and paints a large canvas "".

Yvette Guilbert simply 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 repulsive beauty, but she did not suffer from this at all, she was flirtatious and enjoyed good success with men and the public. Lautrec's poster somewhat discouraged her - she saw herself completely different, not so ugly, but Guilbert understood that the sketch was a tribute to the sympathy and respect of the extraordinary 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 will return 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. One day he paid her a visit - then Yvette saw him for the first time. His ugliness stunned her at first, but when she looked into his expressive black eyes, Guilbert was captivated. Yvette forever remembered that day: she invited him to have lunch together, they talked a lot, and soon she was completely under the power of Henri’s charm... This meeting was followed by others, he came to her and drew, drew... The sessions were stormy, the artist and his model often quarreled - it was as if he took fabulous pleasure in angering her.

Album « Yvette Guilbert"(sixteen lithographs) was published in 1894. The singer, and part-time model of Lautrec, reacted approvingly to him, but then her friends convinced her that she looked disgusting there and that the artist should be punished in court for the offender 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 in Montmartre in late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, such a singer sang - Yvette Guilbert, but history has preserved the memory of her thanks to him, a genius freak Henri Toulouse - Lautrec.

He also glorified the dancer Jeanne Avril, whom he met in the restaurant " Jardin de Paris" Unlike the quarrelsome, harsh La Goulue, Zhana was soft, feminine, and “intelligent.” This illegitimate daughter of a demi-monde and an Italian aristocrat suffered as a child from her mother, a rude, perverted and unbalanced woman who took out all her failures on her daughter. One day, unable to bear the humiliation and beatings, Zhana ran away from home. Music and dance became her consolation. She never sold herself and started affairs only with those who could awaken warm feelings in her. Zhana understood art, was distinguished by sophistication of manners, nobility and some kind of spirituality. According to Henri, she was “like a teacher.” In his drawings, Lautrec managed to convey her, as one of his friends put it, “the charm of depraved virginity.” Jeanne, who highly appreciated Lautrec's talent, willingly posed for the artist and sometimes happily played the role of hostess in his workshop.

Gradually, Toulouse-Lautrec's works 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 counterfeits of Lautrec began to appear on the markets, and this meant success.

But fame did not change the artist’s lifestyle in any way: he worked just as hard and had just as much fun, never missing costume balls, theater premieres, or parties with his Montmartre friends. Lautrec lived as if he was afraid of missing something, of not being able to do something 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 alcohol High Quality cannot cause serious harm. Lautrec loved to mix different drinks, creating an extraordinary bouquet. He was the first in France to make cocktails and received incredible pleasure listening to the praise of his guests, who enthusiastically tried the new drinks. Whoever visited him then, and all his guests knew, Lautrec was supposed to drink. His fellow students in Cormon's workshop Anquetin and Bernard, and the young Van Gogh, who introduced him to Japanese art, and the insidious Valadon, artist and model of Renoir, who seemed to be playing some kind of subtle game with Lautrec - she appeared in his life and then disappeared... 1888

After some time, he no longer needed expensive gourmet liqueurs and cognacs - Lautrec learned to make do with simple, cheap wine from a nearby shop. He drank more and 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 heavy drinking was destroying Lautrec as an artist. But he has not yet lost the ability to create masterpieces: these are portrait of Oscar Wilde, « Toilet», «».

Friends tried to distract him from alcohol addiction, were taken to England, Holland, Spain, but he, having had his fill of old art, admiring the paintings of Bruegel and Cranach, Van Eyck and Memling, El Greco, Goya and Velazquez, returned home and returned to his former self. Henri became capricious, intolerant, and 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 a long time 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 increasingly inappropriate, and he was increasingly subject to bouts of insanity. In the summer of 1897, he shot at imaginary spiders with a revolver; in the fall of 1898, it seemed to him that 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 admitted him to Dr. Semelen’s mental hospital in Neuilly. Coming out of there after several months of treatment, he tried his best to work, but something seemed to break in him.

In mid-April, Lautrec returned to Paris. The friends were shocked when they saw Henri. “How he has changed! - they said. “Only a shadow remains 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 regained hope in him. He was especially pleased with the news that several of his paintings were sold at auction in Drouot, and for a lot of money. Inspired by this event, Henri again felt a strong desire to draw. But - last works as if it wasn’t his... In three months, Lautrec sorted out everything that had accumulated in his studio over the years of work, finished some canvases, put his signature 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 would not be 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 heal Henri. The doctors reported that he had consumption, and in mid-August Lautrec suffered a stroke. He was losing weight, deaf, and had difficulty moving due to developing paralysis. Arriving at 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 huge world childhood, joys, 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 shackled his entire unfortunate body; Lautrec could no longer even eat by himself. There was always someone at his bedside: friends, mother or old nanny. His father, Count Alphonse, also visited, but never recognized his son as an artist. When he entered the room, Henri 1901

Natural growing pains - “hopeless confusion in narcissism” - successfully developed in Toulouse-Lautrec into strong confidence in his success on the foundation of his talent as a draftsman. 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 courage 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 by leading the public to a dead end and using vulgarities. The French made vice a delicacy. High society, who bought creativity, accepted the artistic riotousness of bohemia as the norm of playfulness, affirming status real life. Lautrec, on the other hand, expresses the organic freedom of pose, bringing its expressiveness to the point of shocking. The curtain fell. Life Henri de Toulouse – Lautrec – Monfat ended 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 André du Bois. Later, the Countess ordered the remains of her son to be transferred to Werdle.

Gradually, the works of Toulouse - Lautrec began to acquire largest museums world - Toulouse - Lautrec became a classic. Despite this, Count Alphonse still did not want to admit that his son was talented artist. He wrote to Henri’s childhood friend, Maurice Juayan, who was working on creating a house - the Lautrec Museum in Albi: “Only 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 admitted to Maurice: “You believed in his talent more than I did, and you turned out to be right...”.