All you ever wanted to know about Toulouse-Lautrec

April 10, Part Two

For the first time on this trip, it was warm enough to eat outside!  So, we did..in a big open square.  Everyone is starved for sun, so it was festive.

We spent the entire afternoon at the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, housed in the fortress that belonged to the powerful Bishop of Albi.  Just going through the building was impressive with huge windows and vaulted ceilings.  Toulouse-Lautrec was born to a wealthy noble family here to first cousins who married which probably accounts for his deformities and weak health.  The museum traced his progression as an artist, showing promise even at age 11.  Like Picasso, he started with realistic paintings and sketches, but his early doodles were also very cartoon-like and showed some of the direction in which he would go.

We got a great appreciation about the variety of his work and his capturing of Paris, specifically the world of Montmartre in the last half of the 1800s.  He painted prostitutes sympathetically, combining anonymity with portraiture.  His posters advertised the entertainers of the day, capturing movement of dancers with few lines and bright colors.  He was innovative in poster making.  Unfortunately, he succumbed to alcohol and disease at just 37.  Fortunately, his mother saved his work which was refused by the Louvre, but accepted by the mayor of Albi in 1922.

Ah....warm weather!  We strolled more of the medieval streets and slowly limped back to the hotel!