La Goulue – Moulin Rouge
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
La Goulue – Moulin Rouge
lithograph
June 1898
An original Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec lithograph print.
June 1898
Original lithograph printed in colors on wove paper.
Signed on the stone lower right T-Lautrec.
A superb impression of the definitive state, from the edition on this paper (there was also a small edition on Japan paper). Transcribed from Toulouse-Lautrec’s 1891 poster of the same title by artisans at Atelier Chéret and issued as plate 122 (of 256) in the series Le Maîtres de l’Affiche, bearing the blindstamp of the program (Lugt 1777c) in the sheet lower right. Published by Jules Chéret: printed at Impremiere Chaix (Atelier Chéret), Paris.
Catalog: Masters of the Poster pl. 122.
Size Image: 12 15/16 x 9 1/8 inches
Sheet Size: 15 1/2 x 11 3/8 inches
Framed Size: 24 5/8 x 20 5/8 x 1 1/2 inches
When the brassy dance hall and drinking garden of the Moulin Rouge opened on the boulevard de Clichy in 1889, one of Lautrec’s paintings was displayed near the entrance. He himself became a conspicuous fixture of the place and was commissioned to create the six-foot-tall advertisement that launched his postermaking career and made him famous overnight. He turned a spotlight on the crowded dance floor of the nightclub and its star performers, the “boneless” acrobat Valentin le Désossé and La Goulue, “the glutton,” whose cancan skirts were lifted at the finale of the chahut.
