Corporate Dispatch visits…..First Toulouse-Lautrec Retrospective in Almost 30 Years Debuts in Paris

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) is being celebrated with a superb exhibition, the first retrospective of this influential artist in almost three decades. The show, themed Toulouse-Lautrec, Resolutely Modern just opened at the Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées and is being considered as a very special exhibition of this post-impressionist painter’s work not only because it is the first retrospective in almost 30 years but also because it seeks to give the public the opportunity to reassess Toulouse-Lautrec’s work as a whole.

Currently on view at the Grand Palais until January 27, 2020, this show presents about 200 works by this French painter, who is most famous for his portrayal of 1890s Parisian bohemian nightlife, or “Montmartre culture.” The retrospective brings together a less frequently exhibited collection of paintings, lithographs, and posters spanning the 19th-century artist’s career.

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According to museum organizers, the goal of the retrospective is to present the public with a broader perspective of Toulouse-Lautrec—beyond his depictions of French cabaret culture.

The artist, who spent most of his life in Paris, painted his best-known work in the early 1890s: a poster for the Moulin Rouge, which had recently opened in the French capital. “By giving too much weight to the context and folklore of the Moulin Rouge, we have lost sight of the aesthetic, poetic ambition which Lautrec invested in,” states the Grand Palais.

The exhibition traces the French painter’s stylistic transformation from the late 1800s to just before his 1901 death, highlighting his shifting approach from naturalism (depicting realistic objects and settings) to a more narrative-based, “caustic” style.

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Museum officials say that the retrospective also spotlights Toulouse-Lautrec’s relationship with photography, which influenced much of his post-impressionist work.

Cocurated with the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée de l’Orangerie, and the Réunion des musées nationaux, the Grand Palais exhibition intends to stand apart from the last French retrospective of Toulouse-Lautrec, which took place in 1992. “We wanted to show works that had not been on display during the last retrospective,” said art critic Stephane Guegan, who serves as an advisor at the Musée d’Orsay.