Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
The troupe of Miss Eglantine , 1896 I Brush, pencil and pencil lithography in four colours. H. 61.7; L. 80.4 cm I Bibliothèque de l'Institut national d'histoire de l'art, collections Jacques Doucet, Paris I © Photo Bibliothèque de l'Institut national d'histoire de...
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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
The troupe of Miss Eglantine , 1896 I Brush, pencil and pencil lithography in four colours. H. 61.7; L. 80.4 cm I Bibliothèque de l'Institut national d'histoire de l'art, collections Jacques Doucet, Paris I © Photo Bibliothèque de l'Institut national d'histoire de l'art, collections Jacques Doucet, Paris © Rmn-Grand Palais, Paris 2019
In 1896, Jane Avril performed at the Palace Theatre in London with Miss Eglantine's troupe. She commissioned the poster for the show in Toulouse-Lautrec, in a letter, kept at the Musée d'Albi, where she indicated the names and order of the dancers. Lautrec works from a photograph but does not follow her friend's instructions. He places the dancers from left to right, Jane Avril slightly detached from the other three, then Cleopatra, Eglantine and Gazelle. We find the artist's art of synthesis which transforms the reality of a photographic cliché into a very graphic, flat and linear composition.
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