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Photography by Edward C. Robison III

Aristide Bruant

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s paintings, lithographs, and advertisements depicting the demi-monde of early twentieth-century Paris have become iconic. With his signature style and wit, he captured the many nuances, both light and dark, of the bohemian world of the Montmartre district. Aristide Bruant was a singer and comedian who cultivated an irreverent working-class persona and entertained by humorously insulting his audience, particularly the upper-crust who came “slumming” to Montmartre. He performed in the nightclub Le Chat Noir, which Lautrec also frequented, and they soon became friends. When Bruant was asked to perform at les Ambassadeurs on the Champs Élysée, he commissioned Lautrec to create posters promoting his act. Lautrec created a bold Art Nouveau image of Bruant, in his wide-brimmed hat and dramatic red scarf, and used it on several posters promoting his friend’s performances. The works were plastered all over Paris, and helped popularize not only Bruant, but the poster-artist Toulouse-Lautrec, as well. Stieglitz admired Lautrec’s sense of humor, and exhibited thirty of his lithographs in 1909. It was the first exhibition of Lautrec’s work in the US. The three lithographs presented here were commissioned for the 1893 print portfolio Le Café Concert and were exhibited in Stieglitz’s 291 gallery in 1910.

ArtistaHenri de Toulouse-Lautrec(1864-1901)

French, 1864 - 1901

Fecha1893
MedioLithograph
Dimensiones21 x 18 1/8 x 7/8 in. (53.3 x 46 x 2.2 cm)
Línea de créditoAlfred Stieglitz Collection, Co-owned by Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
ClasificaciónPrint
ProcedenciaAlfred Stieglitz, New York, NY; by bequest to Georgia O’Keeffe (his wife), New York, NY, 1946; to Fisk University, Nashville, TN, 1949; to Fisk University, Nashville, TN, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, as co-owners, 2012
En exhibiciónNo
Aristide Bruant21 × 18.1 in.Tennis Ball2.7 in. diameter

This artwork's face covers about 52× the area of a tennis ball.Drawn to the same scale.