Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Alfred Flechtheim and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is one of the most important representatives of fin de siècle art. He became well known in particular through his portraits, poster designs and depictions of Parisian nightlife. He captured the image of an unprettified Paris in his works, far from the beautiful boulevards, in the bars and amusement cafés around Montmartre. The human figure always formed the starting point and centre of Toulouse-Lautrec’s work. His œuvre repeatedly blurs the boundaries between painting and the applied arts as demonstrated by his poster designs for the Moulin Rouge and it is these very works that established his exceptional popularity in Paris at the turn of the 20^th century.

The variety of techniques and the carefully chosen subjects that, time and again, focus on the theme of the modern world at the end of the 19^th century, made Toulouse-Lautrec a well-respected artist of the period, influencing the picture of the metropolis himself with his paintings and posters. The painter and bohemian died in 1901 aged just thirty-six after suffering a stroke.

Alfred Flechtheim integrated the works of Toulouse-Lautrec into three group exhibitions in his galleries in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Berlin during the 1920s. His drawings, watercolours and posters in particular received the greatest consideration and testify to the French artist’s broad spectrum as well as to the variety included in Flechtheim’s portfolio as an art dealer.