Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the London Art History Society on Toulouse-Lautrec. Writer and lecturer, Juliet Heslewood, led us through Lautrec’s life and art discussing how although he was a painter it was his poster designs which were pioneering and for which he is most well known. She discussed how his art reflected his lifestyle and outlined the main subjects he painted from animals to brothels and places of entertainment. She also highlighted the main models he used and pointed out how many of them had red hair at a time when artists were studying colour contrasts. As I typed the talk up I realised it had been a bit disjointed, swapping between subjects and models, to maintain a chronological narrative. I’m all for chronology but I this case it might have been better to take a list based approach.

Another brilliant exhibition by the Courtauld Gallery which focused on the relationship between Toulouse-Laurrec and one of his muses, Jane Avril. Jane was a dancer at the Moulin Rogue with an eccentric style and is familiar to us from some of the wonderful posters by Lautrec for the theatre as the red headed angular figure. The exhibition included many pictures of her by Lautrec and often places sketches next to the finished posters. It also had pictures of her off stages as well and showed the pathos of the artist on and off stage. The exhibition also looked at her life from her childhood in hospital being treated for St Vitus’ Dance to her later tours of Europe with the dance troup. Reviews Times Daily Telegraph