Une Redoute Au Moulin Rouge
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Une Redoute Au Moulin Rouge
Lithograph
1893
An original Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Lithograph print.
(A Gala Evening at the Moulin Rouge)
1893
Original lithograph printed in black ink on wove paper.
Signed with the artist’s monogram stamp (Lugt 1338) in red ink lower right, also signed on the stone with the monogram lower left.
A fine impression of the Delteil and Wittrock’s only state of this extremely rare lithograph, from the edition of only 50. Published and distributed by Kleinmann, Paris.
Catalog: Delteil 65; Adhémar 54; Wittrock 42; Adriani 42
11 5/8 x 18 1/2 inches
Sheet Size: 22 x 15 inches
In a mock triumphal procession, we see, among others, La Goulue (riding on a donkey) and beside her (also riding) the clown Cha-u-Kao. The occasion for this gala was the autumn celebration at the Moulin Rouge of the Franco-Russian alliance agreed in mid-July 1893 (the event was mentioned to by Lautrec in a letter to his mother written that month). For the occasion, Aristide Bruant wrote his famous song, Vive la Russie, and at the Folies Bergère a new revue was staged to mark the event. Indeed, for several months everyone was caught up in Franco-Russian relations, even in the laundries and bakeries. The last two figures on the left appear in another lithograph, “Au Moulin Rouge, L’Union Franco-Russe,” which appeared in the periodical L’Escarmouche on January 7, 1894 (Wittrock 40). This happy throng is one of Lautrec’s very few compositions which deal with current events.
Wolfgang Wittrock, in his 1984 catalogue raisonné notes that of the 50 impressions in the published edition, 13 were accounted for in public collections at that time. That number is likely to be higher today, resulting the extreme scarcity of this lithograph.
