In our imaginings of Paris, painter and graphic artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) has no small role to play. In his prints, posters, paintings, and drawings, the artist immortalized the city’s Belle Époque nightlife and put the northern neighbourhood of Montmartre on the global map of creative-hedonist hotspots.

The son of old French nobility, Toulouse-Lautrec seems to have been drawn early on to visions of a demimonde, centering his attention on the dance halls, cabarets, and brothels of Montmartre and adopting famed dancers and singers as his subjects, most notably Jane Avril. His works include both lively performance scenes and quiet, tender “after-hours” portraits such as The Sofa and In Bed. Stylistically, he mastered both bold graphics, as celebrated in his promotional posters of Jane Avril, and a loose yet evocative sketchwork.

Though he died aged just 36, due to complications from alcoholism and syphilis, Toulouse-Lautrec’s cultural influence was immense. This introductory book takes a walk through his world of singers, dancers, musicians, and prostitutes to reveal an artist of great humanity, striking figurative skill, and a pronounced sense for the energy and stories of a city.

About the series:

Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:

- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

The Prince of Pigalle

In pursuit of pleasure in the Belle Époque

Today, the painter and graphic artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) is considered as one of the most inspired portrayers of human figures. This physically handicapped scion of the old French nobility was fascinated by life around Montmartre, whose cafes, cabarets, dance halls, and bordellos presented him with the "theater of life."

More than any other artist, Toulouse-Lautrec captured the Belle Époque’s pursuit of fleeting pleasure: directly and without flattery, his paintings, lithographs, and posters offer a masterly and timeless image of the age.

About the Series:
Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:

* a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
* approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
* a concise biography 

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings and prints focused on the theater, dance halls, cafés, and even brothels of late-19th-century Paris. Brimming with emotion and atmosphere, his works were characterized by a distinctive and masterly handling of line. This volume illuminates the unique place Toulouse-Lautrec came to occupy in French art during his short lifetime of 37 years.

From crowded dance halls to smoky cabarets, this vibrant collection of posters from the Belle Époque explores the birth, development, and continued popularity of a graphic genre.

Thanks to innovations in color lithography, the streets of fin-de-siècle Paris were punctuated with brightly hued posters featuring bold typography and playful imagery. Many of these posters were torn down almost as soon as they were pastedup, finding their way into private homes and, eventually, museums and collections all over the world. Although many artists contributed to the affichomanie, or “poster craze,” one of the most famous among them was Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec. This gorgeous book offers exquisite reproductions of more than one hundred posters, including those by Lautrec and his contemporaries Bonnard, Picasso, Chéret and Mucha. Advertising everything from tony theater productions to the licentious cancan, bicycles to biscuits, these posters range from cheerfully exuberant to slyly decadent. In her essay, Mary Weaver Chapin captures the voices of the artists, collectors, and critics who fueled the poster craze of the 1890s. The result is a visual spectacle, a lively discourse on the value and purpose of art, and a celebration of a historically and creatively dynamic era.

The Belle Époque (Beautiful Era), which dates from the late nineteenth century to the start of World War I, was an incredible period of creative and scientific activity. Until his death in 1901 at the age of 36, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was one of its leading names along with poets and writers such as Guy de Maupassant and Emile Zola. He exhibited with Vincent Van Gogh and was a friend of Oscar Wilde whom he met during his time in London. Creating literally thousands of artworks during his short life, the images that Toulouse-Lautrec created were evocative of the mood of that time. His drawings and lithographs were often playful or satirical, but captured the essence of his subject

This book brings together over 170 images. In addition, there are documentary images from the period depicting life in fin de siècle Paris and selected cities around the world. Clothing, architecture and images of street life are featured and where possible photographs of the people Toulouse-Lautrec featured in his works such as Aristide Bruant.

Contents:
Introduction
Toulouse-Lautrec and the Belle Époque in Paris
The Works on Paper
The Belle Époque outside Paris

Maria-Christina Boerner, who studied literature, art history and media, received her PhD in Berlin. A lecturer at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), she is also the author of numerous essays on cultural topics.

This complete international history of poster design from the Art Nouveau to the present covers all of the significant developments in poster design, and every important type of poster, from wine and war to rock and rebellion. One thousand posters illustrate the work of virtually every significant artist and graphic designer whoever created a memorable poster, including a generous selection of contemporary work. Organized chronologically, with thematic sections devoted to design styles as well as popular history, The Poster is also a visual chronicle of world culture from the late 19th century to the present. Finally, The Poster is an appealing design object in itself, and a terrific way to experience the pleasures of graphic design.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), scion of an ancient aristocratic family, was a crippled dwarf. His family's wealth gave him financial security, and he chose to become an artist. In Paris he was drawn to the world of the red-light district around Montmartre. In the cafés, cabarets, dance halls and brothels he observed "the theatre of life", viewing this world not from the moralising standpoint of the 19th-century bourgeoisie, but with the eyes of one for whom all inhibitions had long since vanished.

Lautrec recorded what he saw without the arrogance of a social superior, but also without "spurious pity - like a reporter with a "photographic paintbrush". He transferred his observations to paper and canvas with sensitive understanding and a sharp eye, creating the real atmosphere and live character studies of a world where middle-class morals do not count, in which elegance and baseness mix, as do the ingenuous and the sinful. Lautrec had the gift of painting life as it is. No one else has captured the entertainment world of the belle époque in so unadulterated, so masterful and so timelessly true a manner as did Lautrec in his paintings, lithographs and posters.

This monograph sets out to examine the close relations between Lautrec's work and life. It thereby offers the reader a lively impression of Lautrec's art, and at the same time provides an understanding of his private life and of the magnificent Paris of the belle époque.

Тулуз-Лотрек (Toulouse-Lautrec) (собственно Тулуз-Лотрек-Монфа, Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa) Анри Мари Раймон де (1864 - 1901), французский живописец и график. Потомок древнего аристократического рода. С 1881 жил в основном в Париже, где учился у Л. Бонна (1883) и у Ф. Кормона (с 1884). Испытал влияние импрессионизма (особенно воздействие Э. Дега), а также увлечение японской графикой. Первые же значительные работы отмечены стремлением к предельной индивидуализации образов (портрет Э. Берпара, 1885, галерея Тейт, Лондон). Со 2-й половины 1880-х гг. определяется основная тема Т.-Л. - развлечения и быт богемы, парижского "полусвета"; чуждый своей среде, он ищет забвения в освобожденной от буржуазных условностей "естественности", в призрачном веселье, царящем в кафешантанах, танцевальных залах и прочих заведениях Монмартра. Мир парижского "дна" изображается в композициях и портретах Т.-Л. без морализирования, с присущими художнику нервно-обострённой зоркостью наблюдения, язвительной иронией и в то же время с особенно чуткой реакцией на социальную и нравственную исковерканность окружающей жизни. Своеобразие манеры Т.-Л. с конца 1880-х гг. - в экспрессивном, то резком, доходящем до гротеска, то изысканно-гибком рисунке, в беспокойной фрагментарности композиции, ритмам которой подчинены чёткие контуры форм, длинные упругие и вибрирующие или изломанные красочные мазки-штрихи, в контрастах холодно мерцающей общей тональной гаммы и как бы вспыхивающих в ней нарочито ярких локальных цветовых пятен. Показывая своих героев, опустившихся и падших, их кумиров - певцов и танцоров кабаре (нередко среди героев изображен и сам автор), Т.-Л. не только фиксирует нравы, с импровизационной лёгкостью передаёт динамику мизансцен, характерность поз и жестов, эффекты резкого искусственного освещения, но с психологической проницательностью вникает в эти разбитые судьбы, словно материализует отравленную пороком атмосферу эпохи "конца века".