Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

In 1893, the new manager of the Divan Japonais, Edouard Fournier, commissioned Toulouse-Lautrec to revive the reputation of this café-theatre. The venue had just reopened and was seeking to attract a sophisticated clientele. The artist chose to place the talented dancer, Jane Avril, in the foreground of his poster. Although she appears only as a spectator, her elegant silhouette captures everyone’s attention. Beside her stands the poet and art critic, Edouard Dujardin. On stage, top left in a bold composition, we can see the figure of the famous singer Yvette Guilbert, instantly recognisable by her long black gloves. For his poster, Lautrec drew inspiration from Edgar Degas’s *The Opera Orchestra*. In that painting, the artist focused on the orchestra pit, with dancers in the background, their heads cropped out. Here, he captivates with his modernity, which stems notably from his stylistic treatment, largely inspired by the techniques of Japanese printmaking, which were very much in vogue at the time. Jane Avril’s silhouette stands out against a powerful black background. She is leaning on a table, suggested solely by two diagonal lines. The forms, simplified to the extreme, are accentuated by black outlines. Traditional framing and perspective are disrupted. Toulouse-Lautrec also took great care with his colours. They are pure and contrasting, contributing to the poster’s clarity. To fill his backgrounds, he used ‘crachis’ – fine splashes of ink created using a toothbrush. His lettering, executed with perfect mastery, cemented his status as one of the pioneers of advertising art.

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