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Europe 1800 - 1900
Course: Europe 1800 - 1900 > Unit 5
Lesson 4: Post-Impressionism- Introduction to Neo-Impressionism, Part I
- Introduction to Neo-Impressionism, Part II
- Neo-Impressionist Color Theory
- Seurat, Bathers at Asnières
- Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
- Seurat, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – 1884”
- Van Gogh, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin
- Think you know van Gogh? The Potato Eaters
- Van Gogh, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear
- Van Gogh, The Bedroom
- Van Gogh's Irises: Getty Conversations
- Van Gogh, The Starry Night
- Van Gogh, The Starry Night
- The Pont-Aven School and Synthetism
- Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait with Portrait of Émile Bernard (Les misérables)
- Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon, or Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
- Gauguin, Nevermore
- Gauguin, The Red Cow
- Gauguin, Spirit of the Dead Watching
- Gauguin, Oviri
- Gauguin, Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
- Gauguin and Laval in Martinique
- An introduction to the painting of Paul Cézanne
- Why Is This Woman in the Jungle?
- Cézanne, The Bather
- Cézanne, The Basket of Apples
- Cézanne, Still Life with Plaster Cupid
- Cézanne, Still Life with Plaster Cupid
- Cézanne, The Red Rock
- Cézanne, Still Life with Apples
- Cézanne, Turning Road at Montgeroult
- Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire
- Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire
- Cezanne, Card Players
- Cézanne, Bathers
- Cezanne, The Large Bathers
- Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge
- Post-Impressionism
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Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 1893-95, oil on canvas, 48-1/2 x 55-1/2 inches / 123 x 141 cm (Art Institute of Chicago). Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- I know we earlier discussed how many artists of this time were men and women "of means" which is especially reinforced here atwhen Dr. Zucker says "...where artists would mingle with the lower classes..." implying that ARTISTS were not themselves among the poor! When did we break away from this? When did this notion of the "starving artist" become a common stereotype? 0:39(5 votes)
- From the author:Answering this question rather late! I think the stereotype of the starving artist has nothing to do with the class the artist is from, but rather from an idea of the avant-garde, that is of artists who self-consciously break from tradition and the established art world, to forge a new kind of art. And this idea of the value of the avant-garde happens in the nineteenth century, as the forces of the art market and a mass middle class audience for art become overwhelming. Does that help?(4 votes)
- Where does this panting take place?(2 votes)
- At the cafe-club called the "Moulin Rouge" or the "Red Windmill." The Moulin Rouge was in Pigalle on the Boulevard Clichy, a socially questionable district adjacent to Montmartre, the area north of the center on top of a hill--the Butte Montmartre. The white church with onion domes called Sacre Coeur sits right at the top of the hill. the club was built in 1889 so it was pretty new and extremely fashionable when Toulouse-Lautrec was working.(7 votes)
- Is the distinct diagonal at the lower left inspired by Japanese woodblock prints?(4 votes)
- At, Dr. Harris says "They're all obviously a little bit drunk". I realize it's safe to assume they are a bit drunk because they're in a nightclub and we see glasses on the table, but I couldn't help but be a bit repulsed by the comment. It's not obvious. I don't like to assume anything about a person and claiming something to be obvious makes me feel arrogant. Did anyone else have a similar reaction? In Dr. Harris' defense, basing one's perspective of this painting on the idea that these folks seated around the table are a little drunk does offer a more interesting story to tell. It does engage me more. Does anyone have experience in dealing with the feeling one gets when an art expert come across as pretentious, even when it may not be justified? 1:51(0 votes)
- Those faces! Look at those faces! They're definitely a little bit drunk. I agree with what is said in the video: Toulouse-Lautrec almost makes us want to grab a chair and join the group. It looks like fun.
Thanks to Beth & Steven for these amazingly welcoming, succinct, yet rich introductions to art.(6 votes)
- atshe says that the two women are famous performers, does anyone know who they are? 2:06(3 votes)
- Toulouse-Lautrec used a dancer, Jane Avril, for a model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Avril). I'm unsure if she is portrayed in this specific painting.(1 vote)
- what medium did he use?(1 vote)
- This particular painting was done with oil paints.(3 votes)
Video transcript
(jazzy music) Female: If it wasn't for the long dresses and the top hats, we might mistake this for New York today at 2 AM, or Paris, or any other major city. Male: You do have this real sense that it's too late at night; maybe it's close to last call. We're in the Art Institute of Chicago and we're looking at
Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge. This is what Toulouse-Lautrec did so well to represent Paris
after dark, specifically the clubs that existed on Monte Martre, the hill just north of Paris, where artists would mingle
with the lower classes in part because of the cheap rents but also because there was
a kind of permissiveness. Female: The Moulin
Rouge was a very popular nightclub with dancing
and drinking and music. It was frequented by Toulouse-Lautrec who was really a regular there. We actually see him
here in the background. He's the short figure walking with a very tall man with a top hat. Male: Even though this was seedy, even though this was
really not quite proper, and probably because
it wasn't quite proper, the middle class, at least the adventurous middle class, would venture
into these clubs at night. Female: In terms of its composition, in terms of its treatment of space, Toulouse-Lautrec is borrowing from Degas. Male: Look, for instance,
at the balustrade that begins in the bottom of the canvas and then moves up so quickly to the left. The balustrade actually
separates us from this room, but it also allows our eye in. I want to go in. In fact, I want to eavesdrop on the conversation at that table. I want to find a chair and sit down. Female: I think
Toulouse-Lautrec is actually setting us up for that feeling. He's divided us from that
group by that balustrade, and he's created a sense
of interesting conversation happening between them. They all lean in a little bit. They're all obviously a little bit drunk, but they look very
engaged in conversation, which we feel we can't quite hear, perhaps because the music
is a little bit too loud. Male: On the other hand,
before we can possibly get to that table, we need to address the woman at the right. Female: That woman is a famous performer as is the woman with the red
hair seated at the table. Male: Look at the way Toulouse-Lautrec has rendered her face. Even in Degas' work, he's often rendering ballet dancers, for
example, with stage lights coming up from below, which distorts and disfigures their faces. I'm not sure that I've ever seen something quite this grotesque. Female: Electric lights were new to the Moulin Rouge. Male: Look at the way that the artist has constructed the sense of the alien, the sense of the artificial
that comes from this light. It's violent. It's scary. There is this quality of caricature, yet at the same time, there's also a kind of sensitivity
and a kind of humanity. The figures are specific, but
there's a kind of kindness, for instance, in the man who's seated with a top hat closest to us. There is a genuine kind of camaraderie, a genuine kind of community that this artist is able to produce, even within this stark, nocturnal world. (jazzy music)