Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Paintings

About Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter and illustrator, lived from 1864 to 1901. He was born Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa, and the career on record holds five trades at once: painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator. It was his immersion in the colorful and theatrical life of Belle Epoque Paris, in the late 19th century, that let him make popular art out of decadent affairs. That is the age these canvases come from, and the reason the same faces keep returning in them.

The subject Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is celebrated for is the entertainment of Montmartre. Paris in the late 1800s was a hub of artistic and cultural invention, with the Moulin Rouge and the other Montmartre establishments at the center of the nightlife, and his familiarity with that world became his whole subject: the cabaret stages, the small cafes, the circus and the theatre, the performers, and the women of the houses nobody else painted. Art history keeps him with the Post-Impressionist painters, and a second reputation, as well known as the oils, sits beside them. That one is made of posters and prints, and the posters are lithographs. What you order here is a painting on canvas, in the style he painted it.

Series and periods

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec worked in a small number of places and kept returning to them, so the collection reads best by subject.

• Moulin Rouge and Montmartre: the cabaret venues that made his name, the floor and the booths around it. Titles here: Booth of La Goulue at the Foire du Trone, The Last Crumbs.
• Performers and portraits: the singers, dancers and writers he knew by name, painted one figure at a time. Titles here: May Milton, Romain Coolus, Mademoiselle Beatrice Tapie de Celeyran, Madame la Comtesse A. de Toulouse Loutrec.
• Circus and theatre: the performing arts he followed off the cabaret floor, on stage and in the ring. Titles here: Messaline, between two extras, Seated Dancer in Pink Tights.
• Women, interiors and nudes: the rooms behind the stage, painted without an audience in them. Titles here: Alone, from Elles, Woman in a Chemise, Madame Poupoule, Woman Lying on Her Back, Reclining Nude.
• Early years, studios and horses: the years before Montmartre, when the studio and the stable were the subject. Titles here: Princeteau in His Studio, Horse Fighting His Groom.

Most famous works

These are the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec titles people ask for most in this collection, ordered by the traffic each one draws and by what actually sells. Each title opens its own page, where you choose the size and decide on a frame. Every one is new painting in oil, made after Toulouse-Lautrec to order, and no two hands read a brushstroke the same way.

• Crouching Woman with Red Hair: the page people open first in this collection, a single figure crouching, the red hair carrying the picture
• The Last Crumbs (In the Restaurant La Mie): the end of a meal in the restaurant of the title, two figures left with the plates
• An Examination at the Faculty of Medicine, Paris: an oral examination at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, the examiners in a row and the candidate in front of them
• At Montrouge (Rosa la Rouge): the woman the title calls Rosa la Rouge, seen at Montrouge in profile
• Booth of La Goulue at the Foire du Trone: the fairground booth of La Goulue, the dancer who came out of the cabaret that made his name. The second title our catalog carries for it is Dance at the Moulin Rouge, and it is one of the best selling canvases here
• Messaline (between two extras): the stage role of Messaline, framed between two extras, out of the theatre and the many nights behind it
• Princeteau in His Studio: Princeteau at the easel in his own studio, an interior from the early years
• At Gennelle, Absinthe Drinker: a solitary drinker at a table at Gennelle, the glass in front of him
• May Milton: the performer May Milton alone on the canvas, a poster subject painted in oil
• Woman Lying on Her Back, Both Arms Raised: a nude study, the model lying back with both arms above her head
• Alone (Elles): from the Elles group, a woman alone on a bed with nobody watching her
• Seated Dancer in Pink Tights: a dancer off her feet, in pink tights, resting between turns while the next act runs
• Madame la Comtesse A. de Toulouse Loutrec: a portrait of the comtesse the title names, who carries his own family name
• Romain Coolus: a portrait of Romain Coolus, one of the writers in his circle
• The Laundry Worker: a working woman at her trade, one of the people the Montmartre crowd walked past
• The Two Friends: two women together in an interior, a subject he returned to in the Elles group
• Woman in a Chemise Standing by a Bed (Madame Poupoule): Madame Poupoule in a chemise, standing at the side of a bed
• Reclining Nude: a nude laid along the width of the canvas, the body reading as one long line
• Horse Fighting His Groom: a horse pulling against the man holding it, out of the animal subjects of his early years
• The Gypsy: a single figure, painted the way Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted the people of Montmartre

Browse by subject

The subjects of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec run through other collections of ours, and each one is a different door into the same hand.

• Post-Impressionism: 2,226 works, the mainly French movement that ran from the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886 to the birth of Fauvism around 1905, a reaction against the Impressionist concern with the naturalistic depiction of light and color, with Cezanne, Gauguin, van Gogh and Seurat as its principal artists. This is where art history reads Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, in the room he shares with the painters of his own century.
• Portrait paintings: 8,463 canvases, the genre whose intent is to represent a specific human subject, worked on commission for public and private persons or out of admiration for the sitter, and long kept as a state and family record. The performers, the writers and the comtesse belong here.
• Paintings of women: 9,375 titles, May Milton, Rosa la Rouge, Madame Poupoule and the laundry worker, gathered by subject.
• Nude paintings: 299 pieces, the tradition of visual art focused on the unclothed human figure, a preoccupation of Ancient Greek art that returned to a central position with the Renaissance. The Reclining Nude and the studies of models in the rooms behind the cabaret.
• Horse paintings: 700 paintings, the work of painters who specialize in the portrayal of animals. The horses of his early years, when animals and the stable were the subject.

The full list of painters we reproduce in oil is on the artist index.

How each reproduction is painted

Nothing here is stock. When you order, an artist paints that title in oil on canvas in the size you picked, layer by layer, and you see a photograph of the finished painting and approve it before it leaves the studio. Every canvas is handcrafted by one of the studio artists on our team. Seven sizes are available and the frame is optional, so the same picture can be a small study by a desk or the one thing on a wall. Shipping is free worldwide and returns stay open for 90 days.

Frequently asked questions

What is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec best known for?

Paris at night. His immersion in the theatrical life of the Belle Epoque produced the pictures he is known for: the cabaret dancing, the Montmartre cafes, the circus and the theatre, and the performers who worked in them.

Are the Moulin Rouge posters sold here as oil paintings?

No. The famous posters are lithographs, and the process used there was printmaking, not painting. Prints are not what this collection carries. What you will find are the Moulin Rouge subjects Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted, the Booth of La Goulue among them, each one painted again in oil on canvas by hand.

When did Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec live?

From 1864 to 1901. Inside those years he worked as a painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator, which is why so many of the images people know from him are prints rather than oils.

How many Toulouse-Lautrec paintings are in this collection?

194 titles, from the nightlife and Montmartre subjects to the portraits, the nudes and the early horses. Each artwork is painted to order rather than taken off a shelf, and it lands as well in a modern home as in an old one.

Which Toulouse-Lautrec should I start with?

Crouching Woman with Red Hair draws more visitors than anything else here. For the dancing, take the Booth of La Goulue, which also sells best. For a quieter wall, take The Last Crumbs or the Seated Dancer in Pink Tights.

Are these original Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paintings?

No. Each one is a new painting, made by hand in oil on canvas after Toulouse-Lautrec's composition. It is a reproduction, not a print, and not the original canvas.

What sizes and frames can I order?

Every Toulouse-Lautrec reproduction here comes in seven sizes, with an optional frame. You see a photo of the finished oil painting and approve it before it ships, worldwide shipping is free, and returns stay open for 90 days.