2 The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge. 1892. Lithograph.... Lot 2

2 The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge. 1892. Lithograph. 370 x 475 [490 x 610]. Color print. Delteil 12 ; Wittrock 2. Very nice proof on watermarked laid paper "VAN GELDER ZONEN", signed in pencil and numbered (N° 4). All margins. Edition at 100 proofs. Boussod, Valadon et Cie ed. ex-coll. Jean Georges Coste (Lugt 533c). 30 000 - 35 000 € Trace of oxidation at the opening of the mount. Watermark (arms of Amsterdam) showing in the brown of the hat. A short thin vertical broken fold at the head at the edge of the leaf. Small normal ripples around the edge. The plate depicts the British artist William T. Warrener (1861-1934) - a close associate of Lautrec - and two women at the Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris. "At the beginning of 1892 (before April), Lautrec was commissioned by the gallery Boussod et Valadon to produce two large colour lithographs of the Moulin Rouge (which went on sale in October). The first depicts La Goulue and her friend, la môme Fromage (a little linen maid who was to become a star), and the other depicts M. Warener, an Anglo-Saxon impresario who came to France to recruit actresses for the café-concert, hence the friendliness of Lautrec's models - Lautrec had titled the piece Flirt. (Didn't he have two counterparts in mind, Warener's Flirtation opposing La Goulue's insolent walk with her friend?) These two plates, enormous for their time, are among the best and rarest of the colour lithos. "(Adhémar, p. X-XI).