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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
the podcast
by Sarah Heath | Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
http://thehexagon.space/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/HTL-Master.mp3
In this episode, I’m keeping the subject close to home once again and talking about a painter, illustrator and printmaker who comes from my local town, Albi, down here in the south-west of France. The artist's name: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Actually his full name is Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa. Not often you need to draw breath midway through saying someone’s name so I’m just going to call him Lautrec for the rest of this podcast.
He was born here in Albi in 1864 into an aristocratic family – his parents were the Count and Countess of Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa. Possibly as the result of his mother and father being first cousins, he was born with multiple congenital problems, in addition to which he broke both his legs as a teenager. This meant they didn’t develop properly and he only grew to around five feet tall.
Despite being in pain for much of the time because of these disabilities, Lautrec was able to make light of it. On one occasion when someone made a spiteful comment about his walking stick he remembered: “I had placed my stick on the table, as I do every evening. It had been specially made to suit my height, to enable me to walk without too much difficulty. As I was standing up, a customer called to me: ‘Monsieur, don’t forget your pencil.’ It was very unkind but most funny.”
Because of his health problems and inability to join in with other children his age, he immersed himself in drawing throughout his childhood. Once his mother realised he showed great promise, she sent him to a Paris studio as a young man to learn from the portrait painter, Léon Bonnat. Her motherly ambitions were in the hope that he too would become a fashionable portrait painter. But Lautrec had less pretentious ideas and preferred a far more informal approach.
Although his technique later went on to inspire the likes of other artistic greats like Andy Warhol, not everyone at the time appreciated his talent. The very traditional École des Beaux Arts called his style “atrocious” and showed little interest. In any case, it seemed that Lautrec preferred to learn by working at smaller studios where he met the likes of Vincent Van Gogh – not a bad consolation prize! His portrait of Van Gogh in 1888 which was done in pastel, became one of his best known works. Of his painting style, he said, “I paint things as they are. I don’t comment. I record”.
He was soon drawn to the area of Montmartre and became fascinated by the bohemian lifestyle of colourful 19th-century Paris where he made up part of a group of artists who became known as the post-impressionists, a rather grand sounding concept around the theory that art is based on the perception, imagination and emotion of the artist, not purely on making a copy of what is in front of your eyes. So form, texture and colour took on very different meanings to what was previously seen as ‘art’ in a new freedom of expression. His contemporaries included the likes of Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Rousseau.
For Lautrec, this freedom was not only based on his developing style but also, now no longer having to live up to the expectations of his aristocratic family, meant he could also have the freedom to be inspired by the vibrant city all around him. He began to find work as an illustrator for magazines and journals and he led the way in crossing the boundaries drawn between 'high art' such as painting and sculpture, and 'low art' which included posters and other forms of visua...
View all episodes
the podcast
by Sarah Heath | Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
http://thehexagon.space/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/HTL-Master.mp3
In this episode, I’m keeping the subject close to home once again and talking about a painter, illustrator and printmaker who comes from my local town, Albi, down here in the south-west of France. The artist's name: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Actually his full name is Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa. Not often you need to draw breath midway through saying someone’s name so I’m just going to call him Lautrec for the rest of this podcast.
He was born here in Albi in 1864 into an aristocratic family – his parents were the Count and Countess of Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa. Possibly as the result of his mother and father being first cousins, he was born with multiple congenital problems, in addition to which he broke both his legs as a teenager. This meant they didn’t develop properly and he only grew to around five feet tall.
Despite being in pain for much of the time because of these disabilities, Lautrec was able to make light of it. On one occasion when someone made a spiteful comment about his walking stick he remembered: “I had placed my stick on the table, as I do every evening. It had been specially made to suit my height, to enable me to walk without too much difficulty. As I was standing up, a customer called to me: ‘Monsieur, don’t forget your pencil.’ It was very unkind but most funny.”
Because of his health problems and inability to join in with other children his age, he immersed himself in drawing throughout his childhood. Once his mother realised he showed great promise, she sent him to a Paris studio as a young man to learn from the portrait painter, Léon Bonnat. Her motherly ambitions were in the hope that he too would become a fashionable portrait painter. But Lautrec had less pretentious ideas and preferred a far more informal approach.
Although his technique later went on to inspire the likes of other artistic greats like Andy Warhol, not everyone at the time appreciated his talent. The very traditional École des Beaux Arts called his style “atrocious” and showed little interest. In any case, it seemed that Lautrec preferred to learn by working at smaller studios where he met the likes of Vincent Van Gogh – not a bad consolation prize! His portrait of Van Gogh in 1888 which was done in pastel, became one of his best known works. Of his painting style, he said, “I paint things as they are. I don’t comment. I record”.
He was soon drawn to the area of Montmartre and became fascinated by the bohemian lifestyle of colourful 19th-century Paris where he made up part of a group of artists who became known as the post-impressionists, a rather grand sounding concept around the theory that art is based on the perception, imagination and emotion of the artist, not purely on making a copy of what is in front of your eyes. So form, texture and colour took on very different meanings to what was previously seen as ‘art’ in a new freedom of expression. His contemporaries included the likes of Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Rousseau.
For Lautrec, this freedom was not only based on his developing style but also, now no longer having to live up to the expectations of his aristocratic family, meant he could also have the freedom to be inspired by the vibrant city all around him. He began to find work as an illustrator for magazines and journals and he led the way in crossing the boundaries drawn between 'high art' such as painting and sculpture, and 'low art' which included posters and other forms of visua...