Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Albi, 1864-1901, Saint-André-du-Bois)... Lot 122

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Albi, 1864-1901, Saint-André-du-Bois) La Loïe Fuller sur la piste, c. 1893 Oil on paper mounted on cardboard. School label on the back of the cardboard numbered 34. Height: 49 cm Width: 56 cm. Cardboard : Height 55,5 Width 65 cm (Accidents and tears). Provenance : - collection Emmanuel Bénézit, - collection Marcel Guiot, - collection Georgette Brisset, wife Bessou, 1946, - by family descent, Touraine. A picture of American dancer Loïe Fuller performing at the "Folies Bergères" music hall, c. 1893. By Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Oil on paper on cardboard. Bibliography: - Brame et de Haucke, "Toulouse Lautrec et son œuvre", Collectors Editions, New York, 1971, n° P515, reproduced in volume 2, p. 315. - Foucart and Sugana, "Tout œuvre peint de Toulouse Lautrec", Flammarion, Paris, 1986, n° 475, reproduced p. 117. Certificate: - Marcel Guiot, 4 rue Volney Paris IIe, dated February 4, 1946, - André Schoeller, 33 av du général Sanal Paris XVIe, dated February 6, 1946, - Art Loss Register, London, dated January 18, 2022. LAUTREC AND FÜLLER: THE SYMBOL OF A NEW ART When a young American from Illinois, Loïe Fuller, recently divorced from a polygamous colonel, arrived in France in 1892, the aristocratic artist from Albigensia, two years younger than her, Toulouse Lautrec, was already no longer the darling of the Parisian salons, but had also become a figure of the Montmartre bohemia. Marie-Louise Fuller (1862-1928), known as Loïe Fuller, triumphed at the Folies Bergères, where she was accompanied by a team of electricians and lighting technicians led by her brother. Twirling long veils that she holds at arm's length extended by thin stems, she metamorphoses into a serpentine dancer or an elusive orchid. She embodies the very spirit of the "symbolist" dance. Jean Lorrain lyrically describes this phenomenon: "Was it a dance? Was it a projection of light or an evocation of some spiritualist? Mystery. The tints and shades were illuminated in turn, sometimes developed in spirals, then suddenly agitated like wings, then flowed in capricious volutes, and in the middle of this flow of vapor and mobile veils, a woman's bust emerged. Henri de Toulouse Lautrec is fascinated by this woman who dances on a backlit glass floor, and whose image is reflected infinitely by a subtle play of mirrors. He saw in her a modern Victory of Samothrace and dedicated to her the most symbolist and innovative of his posters. The Loïe becomes there an incandescent flame, a vertical movement, dazzling, of which the painter sprinkles gold powder the sixty or so prints realized. Unfortunately, Toulouse Lautrec's expectations were thwarted and the Loïe, who was to become Rodin's agent in the United States, entrusted other poster artists with the task of promoting her. Loïe Fuller continued her career with Chéret, Steinlen and Raoul Larche before dying in oblivion. There are only three works on paper that evoke this work: a first study in the Albi museum (MTL 152), a second one formerly in the Wildenstein collections and ours, which can be considered as a completed work. It passed through the collections of Emmanuel Bénezit and then the gallery owner Marcel Guiot, before being acquired in 1946 by Georgette Brisset, a merchant from a family of agents at Les Halles, the heart of Paris. It was kept by her descendants, in Touraine, until its rediscovery at this sale. One can recognize the dancer from behind with her flamboyant bun raised at the back of her head, one can guess the reflections of the mirrors on the left and on the right, one is caught in a whirlwind of changing colors. As in the famous painting "Circus Fernando" kept at the Art Institute of Chicago (1925.523), we find ourselves at the artist's side, sitting behind the red arc of the edge of the old circus ring that was the Folies Bergères. With him, one begins to dream of a small American girl who electrifies the City of Light and will embody like no other the symbolist whirlwind of an Art Nouveau.