Museums in Paris: Grand Palais #1 (Part 1 of 2)

The Grand Palais is a very large building.  It has not only a huge hall for expositions like FIAC, but also multiple locations for temporary art exhibitions and a permanent science museum attached to it.  

Diagram of the Grand Palais

Currently, the Grand Palais is hosting a temporary exhibition featuring the art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901).

According to MOMA.org: "During his brief artistic career, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec captured the lively and often sordid atmosphere of Montmartre’s late 19th-century dance halls, cabarets, and theaters.  Recording the performances he viewed and the establishments he visited on a nightly basis, he functioned as artist and narrator: his paintings, drawings, prints, and posters expose the complexities of the quickly changing age in which he lived. Between 1890 and 1900, Paris saw tremendous growth in its nightlife scene, with nearly 300 café-concerts serving women and men who drank, smoked, and fraternized in ways previously unpermitted to them in public. In such prominent clubs as the Moulin Rouge and less reputable institutions like the Moulin de la Galette, aristocrats often rubbed shoulders with the working class. It was within these establishments that Lautrec found the subjects he would voraciously document over the next decade."

"Despite descending from three lines of aristocracy, Lautrec derived artistic inspiration from the people he lived among in Montmartre’s working-class neighborhood, including prostitutes, singers, and fellow artists."

The exhibition is title "Toulouse-Lautrec--Resolutely Modern".

Let's take a tour of the exhibition.

Toulouse-Lautrec was among the first artists to embrace color lithography as a means for reproducing and publishing their work.  One of the artist's most famous posters appears below, in a progressive series of three prints, with a different color added to each print.  It is rare to find the initial "trial runs" of such lithographs, as they are generally discarded once the final printing is successful. However,  Toulouse-Lautrec kept these and even displayed one of them in an exhibit.

Toulouse-Lautrec collaborated with other artists during his short career, including Louis Comfort Tiffany.  Tiffany created a stained glass window based on Toulouse-Lautrec's painting; both are below.  The window was part of the decor in a boutique owned by a wealthy merchant.

Next Up:  More Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec