Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Olivier de Saincère, Paris

Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 1964, lot 39

Mme Denis Boas, Paris

Sale: Sotheby's, London, July 1, 1970, lot 35

Djahanguir Riahi, Paris (acquired at the above sale)

Sale: Ader-Picard-Tajan, Drouot Montaigne, Paris, November 18, 1989, lot 54

Private Collection, France

Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Peintures et lithographies originales de H. de Toulouse Lautrec, 1910, no. 15

Paris, Galerie Manzi Joyant, Exposition retrospective de l'oeuvre de H. de Toulouse Lautrec, 1864-1901, 1914, no. 56

Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Exposition H. de Toulouse Lautrec, 1931, no. 133

Denmark, The Louisiana Museum of Art, H. de Toulouse Lautrec et Paris, 1995

Achille Astre, H. de Toulouse Lautrec, Paris, 1925, illustrated p. 100

Maurice Joyant, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, 1864-1901, Paris, 1926, vol. I, illustrated p. 279

Paul de Lapparent, Toulouse Lautrec, Paris, 1927, illustrated p. 35

Toulouse Lautrec, "Vogue," June 1931, illustrated p. 58

Madeleine Grillaert Dortu, Toulouse Lautrec, Paris, 1952, no. 44, illustrated p. 8 (titled Femme de dos)

Madeleine Grillaert Dortu, Toulouse Lautrec et son oeuvre, New York, 1971, vol. II, no. 485, illustrated p. 297

Giorgio Caproni & Gabriele Mandel Sugana, L'opera complete di Toulouse Lautrec, Milan, 1977, no.426, illustrated p. 114 (dated 1895) 

As a chronicler of the café culture and the night life in turn-of-the-century Paris, Toulouse-Lautrec had no rivals. Born into an aristocratic French family in 1864, Lautrec spent much of his life among the Parisian demi-monde, revealing his genius in investigative portrayals of the twilight world of the fin-de-siècle Paris. A brilliant interpreter of this debauched and lively world, Lautrec did not limit himself – as so many of his contemporaries had done – to social critique.  Mary Weaver Chapin wrote about Toulouse-Lautrec’s fascination with the café-concerts: "Of all the pleasures of Paris – the dance halls, circuses, cabarets, and brothels – it was the café-concert and its stars that cast the greatest spell on Toulouse-Lautrec.  He developed what he called furias, intense obsessions, with certain performers who would enthrall him for a single season or several years.  Lautrec would return night after night, recording the gestures, facial expressions, and postures that made each performer unique" (M. Weaver Chapin in Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre (exhibition catalogue), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. & The Art Institute of Chicago, 2005, p. 137).

Painted in 1893, Jane Avril is an exceptional example of Toulouse-Lautrec’s remarkably modern style. Jane Avril, the subject of the present work, was a popular and well educated show girl, whom he had met in the early 1890s, most likely at Moulin Rouge, where she often performed. Among the numerous stars Lautrec depicted, Avril was one of his greatest furias, as he portrayed her many times throughout his oeuvre. Avril valued his creative and artistic genius and remained a loyal patron and friend throughout his lifetime. In addition to her fame as a showgirl, Avril was acquainted with members of the avant-garde artistic society and she was often featured in advertisements during the late 19^th century. The same year as the present work, Toulouse-Lautrec portrayed Jane Avril on what would be the most famous advertisement of her lifetime, the cover of L’Estampe orignale which currently resides in The Museum of Modern Art in New York.