ART

SHOPPING MALL > DEPARTMENT STORE > ART > ART HISTORY

COMPARISON SHOPPING SEARCH ENGINE

Fine Art Prints

Best Sellers Art Prints

Sale Art Prints

Limited Edition Art Prints

Buy Modern Art Prints, Fine Art Prints, Framed Art Prints and Art Prints Posters.

Select the first letter of the artist's last name to search the Fine Art Prints: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
The Tete-a-tête Supper/En Cabinet particulier (1899)
Oil on pale primed canvas
55cm X 45cm / 21 1/2in X 17 3/4 in

In 1884, Toulouse-Lautrec moved into a studio in Montmartre, which formed his base for the following 13 years. Lautrec found his main subjects in Montmartre with its pop-ular, fashionable nightlife. He had trained in the studio of Leon Bonnat (1834-1922), from 1882, then in the studio of Frederic Cormon (1845-1924), where in 1886 he met van Gogh, and also the artist Louis Anquetin (1861-1932). Although Lautrec had met the singer and cafe proprietor Aristide Bruant in 1885, the artist's meeting with Anquetin introduced him to the latter's brilliant circle which frequented Bruant's cafe-cabaret Le Mirhton in Montmartre. From this time, Lau-trec regularly worked in Montmartre's cafes, sketching its characters and entertainers from life. He also painted courtesans and prostitutes. Indeed, the central figure in Tete-a-tete Supper was the famous demi-mondaine Lucy Jourdan, eating in a private cubicle at the then famous restaurant, the Rat Mort, in the rue Pigalle.

Lautrec's earliest painting style was derived from the Impressionists, more especially the hatched brushwork used by Pissarro in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Lautrec exploited the decorative, surface effect created by this type of patterned brushwork. This mid 1880s to 1890 handling was later replaced by a freer, more open technique, where fluid, graphic contours outlined blocks of more uniform color, applied with rapid, bold sweeps of the brush. He often varied his touch - dots. short lines and zigzag strokes - to create a decorative equivalent for different surface textures, in a manner similar to, but less naturalistic than, that found in van Gogh's pen drawings.

Lautrec was greatly influenced by the tech-niques, style and subject matter of Degas, who was a close neighbor between 1887 and 1891. Lautrec's art, however, has a more im-mediately accessible feel to it than Degas' more intellectual style. Like Degas, Lautrec experi-mented with painting with turpentine whichwas called peinture a I'essence. In Degas' method, oil was drawn out of his colors by placing them on blotting paper. Then the chalky paint was diluted with turpentine and applied like a wash to his support. Because the turpentine spirit evaporated quickly, the colors dried rapidly, so that the paint surface could be re-worked and built up without enormous delays. Unlike paint applied thinly in glazes, with this technique the color dries mat, and has a chalky surface only thinly and sparely colored. Similarly, as in Degas' Portrait of Helene Rouart (1886), Lautrec preferred dull muted ground colors, and a palette of broken rather than pure bright hues. These colors suited the in-door nightlighting that he, like Degas, so fre-quently depicted. Lautrec also experimented with the dulling, absorbent effects of unprimed canvas, and with using unconventional sup-ports like brown cardboard.

Tete-a-tete Supper was a late painting, ex-ecuted on a primed, squarish, standard format canvas. Although the paint layer is thin, it is all-covering and this makes it hard to identify the ground color accurately. It is undoubtedly pale, because its luminosity lights up the dark translucent colors laid on top. It may be a pale putty or oatmeal color. The canvas is fine in weave, relatively smooth in texture, and suited to Lautrec's fluid application of color. The light in the picture is theatrical, and does not conform to a specific source of lighting, but is arranged arbitrarily to shine from below onto the central figure's face, exaggerating and caricaturing her features. Like the graphic art of the painter and caricaturist Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Lautrec's drawing summarizes the essential features of his subjects, adding only as much detail as is needed to capture the important elements of personality and en-vironment. This facility with caricature is an important feature of his style, which was also necessary in his lithographic work. In the posters, which he began to produce in 1890, visual simplicity and direct impact were de-manded both by the technique and by the commercial function of the image. His experi-ments in color lithography made it one of the most important and exciting media in late nine-teenth century art.

The composition in Tete-a-tete Supper is strong and direct, giving an effect of immediacy through the abrupt cropping of the seated gentleman which creates an impression of a fleeting encounter. Yet - as in Degas' works - the appearance of immediacy is deceptive, for the picture is carefully structured and balanced. The background is sketchy and simple, with only the gas lamps on the left to punctuate its yellow-green blandness. Beneath, a solid block of dull loosely brushed Indian red, suggests the red plush seating, which forms a strong hori-zontal where it meets the greenish hues above. At the center point of this horizontal rises the flamboyant beribboned hairstyle of Lucy Jour-dan.Her yellowish blonde hair is streaked with green reflections. The vigorous brushwork, its lively energy echoing the sitter's personality. changes to a drab reluctant touch when de-scribing the partial figure of her escort.

The tabletop, which the viewer appears to look down on, as if standing engaged in conver-sation with the sitter, supplies evidence of the event's location. Glasses and dishes form the after-dinner debris, while a luscious dish of fruit almost lurches out of the frame toward the viewer. The analogy between the ripe lush-ness of his sitter and the full fruits beside her, is a stereotypical image in European painting. Lautrec's spare, thin paint surface, in which I there is virtually no impasto, nevertheless creates a surprising richness of surface textures. The surface is relatively uniformly covered, with fluid translucent washes overlaid with delicate opaque scumbles. For example, the ruffles of her dress almost appear to float. The pictorial space is shallow, confined by the visual barrier of the table and fruit dish in the foreground, and cut off at the back by the wall of greenish hues, emphasizing the claustrophic artificiality of the life-style depicted. Lautrec was at this time already suffering from the effects of alcoholism from which he died two years later.

Lautrec's characteristic thinly worked paint layer is apparent here. His technique, like his fascination with experimentation, seems to derive mainly from Degas. He also used colors diluted with turpentine to make them wash-like and mat. This was a very rapid handling m ethod, which allowed for reworking after only a short drying time. Lautrec's reworkings are in color which is only slightly thicker and more opaque. This gave a final effect of immediacy and capturing a fleeting encounter. However, unlike the other Impressionists, both Lautrec and Degas preferred to study the effects ofartificial light rather than full dayhght. Lautrec used a standard format portrait 10 canvas for this painting, and its squarish proportions are well suited to the compositional design.

Cheap Posters

ART

SHOPPING MALL > DEPARTMENT STORE > ART > ART HISTORY

Shopping Mall : Art Gallery, Fine Art Collection, Art History, Art Supply & Art Print

ART Category: Art, Arts, Fantasy Art, Wildlife Art, Art Gallery, Fine Art, Art History, Art Print, Digital Art, Art Supply, African Art, 3d Art, Poster Art, Cartoon Art, Nude Art, Art Wall, Religious Art

Shopping Mall: Art Store offers Arts, Fantasy Art, Wildlife Art, Art Gallery, Fine Art, Art History, Art Print, Digital Art, Art Supply, African Art, 3d Art, Poster Art, Cartoon Art, Nude Art, Art Wall, Religious Art

ART Topics: Art, Arts, Fantasy Art, Wildlife Art, Art Gallery, Fine Art, Art History, Art Print, Digital Art, Art Supply, African Art, 3d Art, Poster Art, Cartoon Art, Nude Art, Art Wall, Religious Art