Henri de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (French 1864-1901) ... Lot n° 5

"Elsa from Vienna" Original lithograph signed in the plate and numbered VI/CCLXXV, Sur papier Arches Official edition from the Toulouse Lautrec Museum in Albi Stamped Dimensions: 76 X 56 cm Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: (1864-1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century yielded a collection of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern and sometimes decadent life of those times. Toulouse-Lautrec is among the best-known painters of the Post-Impressionist period, a group which includes Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin. He was a member of an aristocratic family. His family quickly realised that Henri's talent lay in drawing and painting. Toulouse-Lautrec's parents, the Comte and Comtesse, were first cousins and he suffered from congenital health conditions (possibly pycnodysostosis) sometimes attributed to a family history of inbreeding. Physically unable to participate in many activities typically enjoyed by men of his age, Toulouse-Lautrec immersed himself in art. He became an important Post-Impressionist painter, art nouveau illustrator, and lithographer, and recorded in his works many details of the late-19th-century bohemian lifestyle in Paris. During a stay in Nice his progress in painting and drawing impressed Princeteau, who persuaded his parents to let him return to Paris and study under the acclaimed portrait painter Léon Bonnat. Toulouse-Lautrec was drawn to Montmartre, the area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. From 1889 until 1894, Toulouse-Lautrec took part in the "Independent Artists' Salon" on a regular basis. He made several landscapes of Montmartre. When the Moulin Rouge cabaret opened, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters. Toulouse-Lautrec slowly drawn his sorrows in alcohol. In addition to his growing alcoholism, Toulouse-Lautrec also had a fondne