Toulouse Lautrec at FIA

The past weekend I visited the Exhibition called Toulouse-Lautrec and His World in Flint Institute of Arts. The art history group I am in had been planning on this field trip since several weeks ago, and we were choosing between this Flint exhibition and the exhibition of early modern Japanese prints in Toledo Museum of Art. Although I love French modern art and the artist Toulouse-Lautrec, I preferred to go to the Toledo one because I was always intrigued by those delicate Japanese prints and Japonisme ( the great influence of Japanese arts and culture) on impressionism. Also in terms of the museums themselves, TMA is better known and it held the super awesome Manet exhibition last year, so I had a higher expectation for the quality of its exhibition. However, after visiting the Flint exhibit, I have to say I was amazed and impressed by the exemplary posters and lithographs of Toulouse-Lautrec.

At the entry wall of the exhibition, there’s a black life-size silhouette of Toulouse-Lautrec on the wall. I felt as if I was standing next to the actual artist. I was really impressed by this lovely design not only because I found the height of Toulouse-Lautrec less than 5 feet ( he ceased to grow after he injured his thigh bones), but also because the silhouette was so typical to be associated with Toulouse-Lautrec’s style, which endowed me a sense of familiarity with the artist and his artworks before I actually walked through the exhibition later on.

    

The most representative works of Toulouse-Lautrec, without doubt, would be his posters and paintings depicting Parisian nightlife. The posters he made for the can-can dancers and cabaret singers elevated the stature and increased the popularity of many rising performers, such as Jane Avril, Yvette Guilbert, May Belfort, and la Goulue. The exhibition showcased posters he made for these female performers, as well as Aristide Bruant, the best-known male carabet singer in Paris back that time. When making portraits, he often captures the most prominent features of the figures, and he prefers to paint the contours and silhouette of the figures. These later developed into logo-like images that could be easily identified as certain performers. An anecdote I read on the label was that Yvette Guilbert was unsatisfied with the portrait Toulouse-Lautrec made for her because he made her seem ugly. However, this “ugly” portrait proved to be a huge success which made her famous. The image below shows Yvette Guilbert performing on stage, wearing her signature long black gloves.

Surprisingly, the exhibit also juxtaposed two Japanese wood-block prints with Toulouse-Lautrec’s May Belfort to show how Japanese prints affected his art style. I’m glad to take this bonus.