Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Comtesse de Toulouse-Lautrec, France
A.M.G. Séré de Rivières, France
Arthur Sachs Collection, Paris
Private Collection, Paris (by descent from the above)

Toulouse, Palais des Arts, XXIIIe exposition des artistes Méridionaux, Toulouse-Lautrec, 1932, no. 15
Toulouse, Galerie Chappe, Toulouse-Lautrec, 1951, n.n.
Paris, Musée National de l'Orangerie, Toulouse-Lautrec, Exposition en l'honneur du cinquantentième anniversaire de sa mort, 1951, no. 34 (dated 1892)
Albi, Musée de Toulouse-Lautrec, Toulouse-Lautrec, Ses amis et ses maîtres, 1951, no. 139 (dated 1892)
Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Chefs-d'oeuvres de collections françaises, 1962, no. 100 (titled Le Dr. Pascal, jeune and dated circa 1894-95)

M.G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec et son oeuvre, New York, 1971, no. P.291, illustrated p. 131

This work is in excellent condition. Canvas is not lined. Surface is slightly dirty. Canvas is pulling very slightly near upper left corner. Under UV light no inpainting is apparent.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Executed in 1887, Portrait de Louis Pascal provides a unique insight into Toulouse-Lautrec’s exceptional ability to convey the ethos of Parisan society at the end of the 19th century. The elegant figure of Louis Pascal, who calmly meets the viewer’s gaze, dominates the canvas. Pascal, the artist's cousin and close friend, sat for Toulouse-Lautrec on several occasions, including the 1891 portrait now in the collection of the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Louise Pascal. A sophisticated and fashionable Parisian, Pascal became for the artist a quintessential modern aristocrat. Toulouse-Lautrec even referred to him as "bel ami" in a letter of 1884—foreshadowing the like-minded protagonist of Guy de Maupassant's novel published the subsequent year, Bel Ami (Anne Roquebert, Toulouse-Lautrec (exhibition catalogue), London, Hayward Gallery & Grand Palais, Paris, 1991-92, p. 152). 

The picture is imbued with a sense dynamism resulting from the artist’s use of short, rapid brushwork. The use of this technique demonstrates Toulouse-Lautrec’s keen sense of the artistic development of the period when many painters moved from Impressionism to Post-Impressionism and experimented with Pointillism. Charles Stuckey remarked: “Lautrec is a consummate master at intensifying the essential quality of form by juxtaposing it with forms of a contrasting nature. His characteristic use of this device sets his work apart from that of the Impressionists with their more homogenous surfaces… While Manet and Renoir tended to handle the picture surface fairly evenly, giving equal attention to both figure and ground, Lautrec concentrates attention more closely on his model by contrasting the densely painted form with the more thinly and sketchily treated peripheries of the canvas” (Charles Stuckey, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, Chicago, 1979, pp. 149-50).