Henri de Touluse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was one of the impressionists. Impressionis was a new tendency in painting at the second part of the 19th century. It was started by a scandal caused by the first official show of Manet painting “Picnic on the Grass” in 1863. Shortly speaking impressionism was a new approach to light and a decomposition of geometrical forms and ussual things, esspecialy in Cezzane’s works.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born on November 24th in 1864, in Albi, France. He was an aristocrat, the son and heir of Comte Alphonse-Charles de Toulouse and last in line of the family that dated backs a thousand years. Henri's father was rich, handsome, and extravagant. His mother was extremely devoted to her only child. She was assigning the blame for his disability to herself (doctors maintained that the reason of her son’s state was her close relation with husband). Henri was weak and often sick. By the time he was ten he had begun to draw and paint.
In 1878 and 1879 Toulouse-Lautrec had two unfortunate fractures. The bones failed to heal properly, and his legs stopped growing. He had a trunk of normal size but with abnormally short legs. He was only 4 1/2 feet (1.5 meters) tall and had a difficult gait, which neccesitated the use of cane.
With his aristocratic origin and excentirc appereance he was not afraid to drop all social prejudices and stayed in the Montmartre section of Paris, the center of the cabaret entertainment and bohemian life. He began to work as an illustrator of life of the cabarets such as Moulin-Rouge where he had reserved table every night. He chose a life in the wings. He was drawing portraits of celebritis of cabarets and nightclubs such as clowns and dancers. He was painting decorations in famous (partly thanks to him) theathre “Moulin-Rouge”. First of all, he was creatinig posters. He was able to make sketches at the same time while laughing and drinking at a crowded nightclub.
To become a part of Montmartre life and to protect himself against crowd’s laugh at his appearance he began to drink heavily. As he would say he strarted to commit a “moral suicide”. At the same time he also managed to travel, visited England and Spain.
Despite his dissolute life, he had extremaly good relations with parents. He could count on them every time he needed money or moral support.
In 1090’s the drinking started to affect his health. He was confined to a sanatorium and finally he got back home to his mother’s care. All of this for nothing. He could not stay away from an alcohol. Toulouse-Lautrec died on September 9th in 1901, at the family house.
The aim of his art was to penetrate the life of cafes and cabarets of Montmartre. His main heroins were prostitutes, cancan dancers, and singers. His works are regarded to be a great portrait of the “fin de siecle”. His genuity is mostly based on a mixture of compasion to the people from a margin of society and their tragedy. Only in impressionistic ways of expression he managed to present that completely.
His paintings and posters (particularly the `Moulin Rouge' group) bring high prices at auctions and art sales.
Based on Toulouse-Lautrec’s biography the film “Tolouse-Lautrec” was made by Roger Planchon. The director tried to show us the world throught an impressionistic convention. Every scene is composed like the hero’s paintings, full of live and colours. The film is a kind of living painting, a reflextion of Toulouse-Lautrec’s works. In that film Planchon is speaking about an artist using his ways of expression, his own language.