30 Facts About Toulouse-Lautrec

Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century allowed him to produce a collection of enticing, elegant, and provocative images of the sometimes decadent affairs of those times.

Toulouse-Lautrec is among the painters described as being Post-Impressionists, with Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat commonly considered as belonging in this loose group.

Toulouse-Lautrec was a member of an aristocratic family .

Toulouse-Lautrec's younger brother was born in 1867 but died the following year.

At the age of eight, Toulouse-Lautrec began living with his mother in Paris, where he drew sketches and caricatures in his exercise workbooks.

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In 1875, Toulouse-Lautrec returned to Albi because his mother had concerns about his health.

Toulouse-Lautrec took thermal baths at Amelie-les-Bains, and his mother consulted doctors in the hope of finding a way to improve her son's growth and development.

Toulouse-Lautrec's parents were first cousins, and his congenital health conditions were attributed to a family history of inbreeding.

Toulouse-Lautrec developed an adult-sized torso while retaining his child-sized legs.

Toulouse-Lautrec's mother had high ambitions and, with the aim of her son becoming a fashionable and respected painter, used their family's influence to gain him entry to Bonnat's studio.

Toulouse-Lautrec was drawn to Montmartre, the area of Paris known for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers.

In 1885, Toulouse-Lautrec began to exhibit his work at the cabaret of Aristide Bruant's Mirliton.

Toulouse-Lautrec later exhibited in Paris with Van Gogh and Louis Anquetin.

Toulouse-Lautrec made several portraits of her and supported her ambition as an artist.

Toulouse-Lautrec contributed several illustrations to the magazine Le Rire during the mid-1890s.

Toulouse-Lautrec was fascinated by their lifestyle and the lifestyle of the "urban underclass" and incorporated those characters into his paintings.

Toulouse-Lautrec found an affinity between his condition and the moral penury of the prostitute.

Toulouse-Lautrec created about a hundred drawings and fifty paintings inspired by the life of these women.

Toulouse-Lautrec's mother had left Paris and, though he had a regular income from his family, making posters offered him a living of his own.

Toulouse-Lautrec's family was Anglophilic, and though he was not as fluent as he pretended to be, he spoke English well enough.

When Wilde faced imprisonment in Britain, Toulouse-Lautrec became a very vocal supporter of him, and his portrait of Oscar Wilde was painted the same year as Wilde's trial.

Toulouse-Lautrec initially drank only beer and wine, but his tastes expanded into liquor, namely absinthe.

Fine and hospitable cook, Toulouse-Lautrec built up a collection of favourite recipes – some original, some adapted – which were posthumously published by his friend and dealer Maurice Joyant as L'Art de la Cuisine.

Toulouse-Lautrec's family had him committed to Folie Saint-James, a sanatorium in Neuilly-sur-Seine for three months.

Toulouse-Lautrec is buried in Cimetiere de Verdelais, Gironde, a few kilometres from the estate.

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Toulouse-Lautrec's mother contributed funds for a museum to be created in Albi, his birthplace, to show his works.

Toulouse-Lautrec's style was influenced by the classical Japanese woodprints, which became popular in art circles in Paris.

Toulouse-Lautrec excelled at depicting people in their working environments, with the colour and movement of the gaudy nightlife present but the glamour stripped away.

Toulouse-Lautrec was a master at painting crowd scenes where each figure was highly individualised.

Toulouse-Lautrec often applied paint in long, thin brushstrokes leaving much of the board visible.